India and Pakistan resolved to widen their peace dialogue yesterday as they discussed festering issues including their decades-old dispute over Kashmir.
India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar reviewed progress made in previous talks, paving the way for fresh dialogue to begin today. In a joint statement after the talks in New Delhi, the pair said talks had been "productive ... Several useful ideas and suggestions were made by both sides."
PHOTO: AP
India's External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri were scheduled to meet in New Delhi today and tomorrow.
"The Foreign Secretaries discussed ways of taking the process forward," the statement said. "They would be reporting to the foreign ministers with the recommendation that the composite dialogue should be continued with a view to further deepening and broadening the engagement between the two sides."
At the heart of India-Pakistan tensions is Kashmir, where New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of arming Islamic militant groups who cross to the Indian side and carry out terrorist strikes.
The rebel groups have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989, seeking Muslim-majority Kashmir's independence from predominantly Hindu India or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. More than 65,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Islamabad denies New Delhi's charge that it helps the militant groups materially. Pakistan also says it is clamping down on rebels on its territory. But India says militants continue to cross from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Sideshow
Meanwhile, as the diplomats met to push forward peace, their border guards play out a jingoistic ritual of confrontation for thousands of onlookers from both sides.
The display of hostility takes place every evening at a flag-lowering ceremony on both sides of the rivals' only border crossing.
Loudspeakers blare out patriotic Indian songs and soon the crowds at the Wagah border crossing begin to chant.
"Hail mother India!" is the cry from 8,000 Indians in a grandstand built beside the border gate, set amid green wheat fields.
"Long live Pakistan!" several thousand Pakistanis shout back from the other side of tall iron gates guarded by soldiers with assault rifles. "God is greatest."
The old rivals came close to a fourth war in 2002 but ties warmed last year, culminating in a summit between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Crowds at the daily ceremony have swelled in the past couple of years to nearly 10,000 on the Indian side from a few hundred before, Indian border guards said.
Groups of Indian school girls dance in the stands and in the middle of the road as the music switches to a 1960s patriotic Bollywood song set to a modern tune.
The chanting reaches a crescendo as border guards dressed in ceremonial uniforms with tufted headgear begin a goose-step march to lower flags at the gate, stomping their boots with enough force to kick up dust on the asphalted road.
"The line between tourism and nationalism does not exist here," said a senior Indian officer.
"Military tensions are down and the soldiers are relaxed but it doesn't matter to the public. They get very excited."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of