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.