ISLAMABAD, 19 July 2004 — Top diplomats from Pakistan and India will hold talks on the sidelines of a regional conference to help sustain a tentative peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors, a Pakistani spokesman said yesterday.
The fifth meeting this year between the heads of the two foreign ministries will prepare the ground for talks between ministers later this week in the Pakistani capital.
Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and his Indian counterpart Shashank will review the progress of peace talks, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told reporters.
The diplomats are expected to meet today, before a conference of foreign ministers of seven South Asian nations begins tomorrow to take stock of efforts to launch a free trade area in one of the world’s poorest regions, home to about 1.4 billion people.
Leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) agreed in January to launch a free trade area from 2006 to boost regional commerce, which accounts for less than five percent of member states’ global trade.
SAARC’s charter does not cover political issues, but the forum brought together Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and then Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in January for a landmark meeting at which they agreed to revive peace talks.
“These intense contacts are helpful in sustaining the dialogue process,” Khan said. “The peace process is moving on twin tracks of confidence-building measures and dialogue.” The South Asian neighbors are making slow progress in a fresh bid for peace launched last year. They teetered on the brink of their fourth war in 2002.
Khokhar and Shashank last met in New Delhi three weeks ago and vowed to pursue discussions to resolve a dispute over Kashmir that is at the heart of half a century of enmity. The two sides have also agreed to hold talks on a range of other issues in July and August.
Fresh separatist violence in Kashmir and the election of a traditionally conservative party, Congress, to power in New Delhi in May have raised fears peace moves may lose momentum.
