NEW DELHI, 9 September 2004 — India and Pakistan yesterday opened up their countries to group tourism while announcing a series of high-level meetings and visits between officials to push forward the peace process over Kashmir.
A joint communique issued here at the end of a visit to India by Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri laid out a timetable for talks in the next few months on issues such as nuclear and conventional weapons, coast guard cooperation, a bus service between the two zones of Kashmir and restarting a train service closed since a 1965 war.
In a sign of warming ties, Kasuri invited his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh to visit Pakistan this year. “The invitation was accepted and the dates would be worked out through diplomatic channels,” the joint communique said.
The joint statement suggested that both India and Pakistan have made yet another beginning on the Kashmir issue. While Pakistan expressed readiness to abide by the Shimla Agreement, India appears to have agreed to a multilateral involvement in resolving the row. Without mentioning Kashmir, the second paragraph of the joint statement said: “They (the foreign ministers) reiterated their commitment to the principles and purposes of the charter of the United Nations, and their determination to implement the Shimla Agreement in letter and spirit.”
The statement also said that talks were held in a “cordial and constructive atmosphere.” Kasuri wound up the five-day trip to India yesterday.
In a departure from earlier bilateral discussions, Kasuri and his Indian counterpart, Natwar Singh, exchanged barbs over Kashmir as they stood side by side on Monday, but agreed not to let their differences block the peace process.
Natwar said militants continued to sneak into India’s portion of Kashmir from Pakistan’s part, despite a promise by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in January to prevent his nation’s territory from being used as a staging ground for attacks against India. Pakistan says it doesn’t support the militants, and that it is clamping down on them. Kasuri in turn accused India of doing little about alleged human rights abuses by Indian security forces in Kashmir. “The road ahead is that Pakistan and India must talk to each other on all issues including Jammu and Kashmir,” Kasuri said in an interview broadcast yesterday with the state-run Doordarshan television channel. “There should be a reasonable timeframe.”
