ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, 14 July — President Pervez Musharraf begins his landmark India visit today with guarded optimism as decades-old dispute over Kashmir continues to keep the archrivals poles apart. India and Pakistan hardened their positions yesterday ahead of the summit with New Delhi insisting Kashmir is its integral part and Pakistan saying better ties with India hinged on resolution of the festering row.
Tension mounted on the eve of Musharraf’s arrival in New Delhi, where security was beefed up and hard-line Hindu activists burned an effigy they said represented Pakistan.
Musharraf insisted he could not remain leader of his country if he accepted India’s continued control of the Himalayan territory. “Who in Pakistan could ever accept this?” he asked in an interview with the Dubai-based Gulf News.
The evening before leaving for India, Musharraf sent a mixed signal. He rejected the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration on the grounds that the two sidelined the Kashmir issue.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told a local news agency that Kashmir would always remain “the core” of nationhood and he rejected any suggestion of third-party mediation.
Pakistan yesterday expressed dismay over the reported remarks of Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh over the status of disputed Kashmir region ahead of the summit tomorrow.
“It is unfortunate that on the eve of the summit such a statement is issued,” Pakistan’s official APP news agency said, quoting the military government’s top spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi.
Singh described the Himalayan region as “integral part of India” and contested Pakistan’s position that Jammu and Kashmir was “core issue” between the two newest nuclear nations.
India’s favored agenda for tomorrow’s summit with Pakistan is an eight-point “composite dialogue” covering a wide range of bilateral issues — Peace and security; Jammu and Kashmir; Siachen; Terrorism and drug trafficking; Economic and commercial cooperation; Sir Creek; Tulbul project and Promotion of friendly exchanges. In New Delhi, Indian opposition parties, said yesterday they would attend a tea party to be given by Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Delhi for President Musharraf today despite Kashmiri separatists also being invited.
