By IRNA,
Islamabad : President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday noted that the ‘Composite Dialogue’ process between Pakistan and India has positive contribution to improvement of relations.
President Pervez Musharraf was talking to Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, the External Affairs Minister of India in Islamabad.
He said that both countries have agreed on a number of confidence building measures and there was a need to sustain and consolidate this process, a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Reaffirming Pakistan’s resolve to peacefully address all outstanding issues with India, the President emphasised the need for an early and durable settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
He also stressed the need for associating the Kashmiri people in the dialogue process.
The President also called for addressing the Siachen and Sir Creek issues. The President said that there was a need to move from conflict management to conflict resolution through more confidence building measures, settlement of outstanding disputes, economic and commercial cooperation and people to people contacts.
Mr. Mukherjee, who is leading the Indian delegation for the Ministerial Review of the 4th Round of the Composite Dialogue was accompanied by Indian Foreign Secretary Mr. Shivshankar Menon. Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Foreign Secretary Mr.
Salman Bashir were also present on the occasion.
Conveying the greetings of the Indian President and the Prime Minister to President Musharraf, the Indian External Affairs Minister stated that both countries had made significant progress in their relations in the last few years.
Expressing satisfaction that the Composite Dialogue had resulted in confidence building between the two countries and improvement of atmospherics, the Indian External Affairs Minister expressed resolve of his country to take this process forward. Mr. Mukherjee stated that India wanted to resolve all outstanding issues with Pakistan. He also emphasized the need for increased interaction between the two countries in economic and commercial fields.