- Title: INDIA: FOREIGN MINISTERS FROM SEVEN SOUTH ASIAN NATIONS KICK OFF TWO-DAY MEETING
- Date: 3rd January 2004
- Summary: (W4) ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (JANUARY 2, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SCU SAARC SUMMIT LOGO; SLV SAARC SUMMIT VENUE 0.07 (W3) ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (JANUARY 2, 2004) (REUTERS) 2. MV INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER YASHWANT SINHA AND PAKISTAN FOREIGN MINISTER KHURSHEED MEHMOOD KASURI POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS; MV PHOTOGRAPHERS 0.16 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English)
- Embargoed: 18th January 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN / SRINAGAR, JAMMU AND KASHMIR, INDIA
- Country: India
- Reuters ID: LVAECOIDED0P9FGKBP0P2MWH5OL3
- Story Text: India has not ruled out a meeting of top leaders at
a key regional summit, while Kashmiris hope for progress.
The foreign ministers from seven South Asian nations
kicked off a two-day meeting in Islamabad on Friday
(January 2) with all eyes on whether India and Pakistan
will use the occasion to advance a fragile peace process.
Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha and Pakistan
Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri posed for
photographers, standing side by side and smiling broadly.
The meeting is to focus on boosting free trade in the
region among other issues, and prepare the way for a
three-day SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional
Cooperation) summit for heads of government starting
Sunday.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will arrive
on Saturday to the summit hosted by his rival, Pakistan's
Pervez Musharraf.
The summit offers a chance to strengthen a fragile
peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals. The fact
that Vajpayee is visiting Pakistan for the seven-nation
summit is a sign of progress in itself.
"They (Indian and Pakistani leaders) will be meeting.
There will be meetings and meetings. They will be meeting
socially," Sinha told reporters just before the meeting.
Asked about bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the
summit he said: "We have said that it has not been decided
yet. Let the prime minister (Vajpayee) come tomorrow."
Diplomats say Vajpayee may well sit down with his
Pakistani counterpart, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, and there is
a reasonable chance of an ice-breaking meeting with
Musharraf.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Kasuri Mehmood heralded the
resumption of the summit: "The holding of the SAARC summit
after an intermission of two years is a welcome
development. Pakistan has always been of the view that the
SAARC process should continue uninterrupted. We believe
that present opportunities must be fully utilised to ensure
that South Asia is put on a fast track to regional
co-operation."
SAARC rules forbid discussion of bilateral issues but
on the sidelines Vajpayee and Musharraf could announce
further steps to normalise relations and rebuild ties
severed when the nuclear-armed rivals came perilously close
to war in 2002. They broke off all ties the previous year
after India blamed Pakistan for involvement in an armed
attack on the federal parliament in Delhi.
With hopes and tensions high, Pakistan has deployed
10,000 armed police and soldiers in the capital for the
summit. It is an unprecedented security operation which
follows two attempts to kill Musharraf in the last month
that have been blamed on Islamic militants.
In Jammu and Kashmir, divided by decades of war and
hostility between India and Pakistan, residents view
Vajpayee's visit to Islamabad with a bit of hope.
Some are optimistic the nuclear-armed rivals will seize
the chance offered by the SAARC summit to move their slow
and unsteady peace process forward.
Mahmud Khan, a resident of Srinigar said: "Our leaders
have now understood that something has to be done to solve
the issue. If the summit is successful then it is good for
us."
Aslam Ahmed, another resident, said a successful summit
would enable them to meet their relatives across border.
"The meeting which is going on should make sense as it
is important for us. Our future depends on what happens in
the summit. We will be able to meet our relatives across
the border if the summit is successful," he said.
Salim Geelani, leader of the breakaway faction of Jammu
and Kashmir Democratic freedom party, said he hoped the
summit would lead to talks between the two countries.
"The summit will bring a new ray of hope in the life of
people here. We welcome the starting of talks between the
two countries. And we hope both the countries will come to
a logical conclusion for restoring peace in the troubled
state," he told reporters.
India and Pakistan have slowly rebuilt ties in the past
year, reopening air, land and sea transport routes and
resuming ministerial visits. They have also agreed to a
ceasefire in Kashmir.
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