Pakistan's president announced the next round of peace talks with rival India will take place later this year, just after the Indian elections, and that foreign ministers from the two sides will soon get involved in the negotiations.
President General Pervez Musharraf broke the news in a speech at a conference of Islamic clerics on the sidelines of the historic first round of peace talks between the two nations.
The talks are being held between the two country's foreign secretaries, and a move to include foreign ministers would mean a significant boost in the level of the negotiations. A delay until after India's April vote had long been suspected.
"The talks have been held now. I want to tell you that in July or August, or God willing, in May or June, the next secretary-level talks will be held, immediately after the elections in India," Musharraf said. "The Kashmir issue will be included and in July or August, a foreign minister-level composite dialogue will be held."
The latest peace talks have raised hopes that the South Asian rivals can put their half-century of enmity over Kashmir and other issues behind them.
India's Secretary for External Ministry Affairs, Shashank, who uses one name, and Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar met yesterday in the last of three-days of talks that have been taking place in the Pakistani capital.
Even before Musharraf's announcement, the two sides had voiced optimism.
"We expect this round of talks to succeed and kick-start the composite dialogue," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said. "Things are moving smoothly and we are optimistic."
A breakthrough on the timetable was reached Tuesday, but specifics were not announced until Musharraf's speech. Further details were likely to be held at a press conference later yesterday after the formal end of the talks.
Pakistan and India have fought two out of their three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947 over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. The two countries agreed at a regional conference last month that the time had come to resolve the issue, and they have moved quickly since then to cement better ties.
India and Pakistan were expected to set up eight groups to tackle the decades-old Kashmir dispute, build confidence and deal with issues such as nuclear arms, terrorism, drugs and trade. The agenda was first agreed to in 1997 but failed to make any headway.
Diplomats close to the talks also said technical-level discussions about a bus service in divided Kashmir and another bus and train route from Pakistan's Sindh province would take place next month.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is expected to win the April vote and continue the dialogue.
On Tuesday, the two delegations drove to Murree, a hilltop resort 50km northeast of Islamabad, and just a few kilometers from the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, where the agreement was reached over lunch.
The three-day summit came after Vajpayee and Musharraf decided last month to resume a peace dialogue. A July 2001 summit in Agra, India failed to make any progress.
A ceasefire line divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, but both claim the territory in its entirety. More than 65,000 people have been killed in an insurgency that has raged in Indian-controlled portions of the territory since 1989.
In January, Vajpayee agreed to discuss Kashmir while Musharraf promised not to support terrorism in Pakistani territory directed against India. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic guerrillas fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan, a charge Pakistan denies.
Early this month, Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes said Pakistan's government has taken effective measures against Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan, leading to a decline in incursions into Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS