Gujral hopes for warmer ties with Pakistan
Gujral hopes for warmer ties with Pakistan
NEW DELHI (Agencies): Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral
has said he hopes a face-to-face meeting with his Pakistani
counterpart next week will lead to warmer relations between the
longtime enemies.
"We will try to find a way out of the deadlock in Indo-
Pakistan relations and I hope we will find a way to improve
relations to our mutual benefit," United News of India (UNI)
quoted Gujral as saying.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted India's new prime
minister as telling dignitaries in the northern state of Punjab
that he expected a positive result from the meeting with
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on May 12.
Gujral and Sharif are to hold talks ahead of a three-day
summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) in the capital of the Maldives, Male.
The meeting would follow two rounds of high-level talks which
resumed in March after three years of bitterness between the
South Asian neighbors.
It would be the first meeting between the prime ministers of
the two countries since April 1993, when Nawaz Sharif and then
Indian prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao met on the sidelines of
a SAARC conference.
Gujral told the audience in Punjab that as foreign minister
under former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, he had instructed
Indian officials to refrain from making critical statements
toward Pakistan.
Last month before being named prime minister, Gujral held
upbeat talks in New Delhi with Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar
Ayub Khan. As a goodwill gesture, they agreed to free several
hundred fishermen detained for illegally fishing in each other's
waters.
During his one-day visit to Punjab, Gujral said India wanted
Pakistan to thrive and was willing to increase trade.
"Let Pakistan be prosperous as a prosperous Pakistan will be
to India's benefit," UNI quoted him as saying.
Gujral said in a bid to build mutual trust he had allowed the
export of 14,000 tons of Indian sugar to Pakistan by rail.
Some leaders in Punjab state, which borders on Pakistan, have
called for the opening up of the border to permit free trade
between the two neighbors, which have fought three wars since
1947.
Kashmiri chief minister Farooq Abdullah said yesterday the
upcoming talks between the Indian and Pakistani prime ministers
at Male would not achieve a solution to the Kashmir dispute.
"Let us not be too optimistic that the Male meeting will
achieve any major breakthrough," Abdullah told reporters here.
Pakistan has said talks have to focus on the disputed Kashmir
territory, where more than 20,000 people have died since 1989 in
a separatist campaign.
India has accused Pakistan of arming the Kashmiri militants
but Pakistan denies the charge, saying it extends only moral and
diplomatic support.
Abdullah said Pakistan was more interested in "pushing the
Kashmir issue" than solving other bilateral problems.
"Kashmir is on the top of Pakistan's agenda. At the moment
they are not interested in trade or tourism," he said.
India had granted its arch-rival most favored nation status
and has eased visa restrictions for Pakistanis visiting India.
"But so far, the gestures have not been reciprocated by
Islamabad who says Kashmir is the core issue," Abdullah said.
Abdullah, whose government took power in October in the first
provincial elections in eight years, said his main challenge was
to rebuild Kashmir and create an environment for peace and
economic development.