RIYADH, 20 July — Unmindful of the “cold response” from Pakistan, India would be going ahead with the enforcement of the confidence-building measures (CBMs) announced days ahead of the Agra summit.
New Delhi has reassured Islamabad that the CBMs initiated by it prior to President Pervez Musharraf’s visit for the Agra summit would be fully implemented.
“It is that commitment which was demonstrated at Simla, in Lahore and recently during President Pervez Musharraf’s visit,” India’s Minister of External Affairs and Defense Minister Jaswant Singh said in a statement released by the Indian Embassy here yesterday. He added: “It is our conviction that, when put in place, they will make an important contribution to our relations.”
Pakistani expatriates in the Kingdom and elsewhere were wondering whether India would stand by its commitment on CBMs, especially in the matter of easing visa restrictions on travel to India which the latter had announced earlier.
India has also reaffirmed that it would “pick up the threads from the visit of the President of Pakistan. We will unceasingly endeavor to realize our vision of a relationship of peace, friendship and cooperation with Pakistan.”
The statement takes a conciliatory approach shorn of the fiery anti-Pakistani rhetoric of the past. It refers to the cordiality and candor that marked the meetings and adds: “They provided an invaluable opportunity to both sides to understand each other’s viewpoints, concerns and compulsions.”
Jaswant expressed his disappointment that “the two sides could not arrive at an agreed joint declaration. It will not be a breach of confidentiality to clarify that this was on account of the difficulty in reconciling our basic approaches to bilateral relations.”
