ISLAMABAD, 28 October 2003 — Pakistan will not reject the series of confidence building measures proposed by India including resumption of rail and air links last week, the Foreign Ministry spokesman told a weekly news briefing yesterday.
“We are considering Indian proposals and will respond to these proposals in due course of time,” said the spokesman while responding to a question on the Indian proposals.
Officials are in the process of preparing a response to the 12-point package proposed by Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha that included a bus service between different Pakistani and Indian cities, resumption of air link that was cut off following military tensions between the two countries and technical level talks between officials of the two countries on various issues.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told the news briefing that Pakistan’s response to India proposals would be robust and comprehensive. “We will certainly not reject the proposal, we will accept some of these proposals and will add new elements to some others,” said Khan.
The military tensions between Pakistan and India, following an attack on Indian Parliament in December 2001, brought relations between two countries to the lowest level. The two countries withdrew their ambassadors from each other’s capital, road, railroad and air links were severed and the two armies faced each other on the international border in an eight-month standoff.
Most analysts agree that the Indian proposals are aimed at bringing relations between two countries back to the pre-December 2001 situation. However, the India package clearly sidesteps the main stumbling bloc in normalizing ties between the two countries — Kashmir.
Pakistan maintains that Kashmir is still the core issue, which needs to be addressed on a priority basis. Another issue which may find mention in Pakistan’s response to the Indian proposals is the reduction of risk of a nuclear confrontation.
In the February 1999 Lahore Declaration, India and Pakistan agreed to “take immediate steps for reducing the risk for accidental and unauthorized use of nuclear weapons.”
