By IANS,
New Delhi : Carrying the message of India’s desire to push forward the “peace process” with Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will leave for Islamabad Tuesday to begin the first high-level engagement with the new Pakistani government.
But South Block made it clear Sunday that the process can only move forward in an atmosphere “free from violence”.
“We are going to Pakistan with the hope to revive the dialogue process that has contributed so much to improve our relations,” Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said on the eve of his departure to Islamabad.
But he added that both sides have acknowledged “the process can only move forward in an atmosphere free from violence”.
Menon reaches Islamabad Monday and will hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir the following day. On Wednesday, Mukherjee and Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi will hold their dialogue.
Mukherjee will also meet Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chair Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani during his two-day visit.
This will be the first formal and high-level engagement between the two sides since the PPP-led coalition came to power in Pakistan in March.
“The significance of the visit is to pick up the threads from where we had left,” an official source said. “We want to reassure the new government that we are willing to move forward with the peace process. But we also want to see how ready our Pakistani counterparts are to take it forward,” the source added.
Officially, the visit is being termed as a review of the fourth round of the Composite Dialogue that has eight issues on which the two countries have differing views.
The two foreign secretaries directly deal with the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and terrorism though they also review the progress made on the other six issues in the dialogue process.
As per the practice, the foreign ministers review the progress of the Composite Dialogue a day after the foreign secretaries’ meeting and announce the dates of the next round of the dialogue.
The Composite Dialogue has ben an integral part of the two countries’ peace process for the past four years. A ceasefire has been “holding” since 2004 and even the level of infiltration into India from across the border has gone down, though in recent weeks it is showing signs of going up yet again as the snow melts in the high mountain passes in Jammu and Kashmir.
Though India is willing to talk with Pakistan on all issues that are of “concern” to it, it was not for seeking immediate results from Islamabad. The Indian establishment believes that finger-pointing and accusatory tones can only vitiate the atmosphere without getting any cooperation from the other side on any of the issues that are of concern to India.
“Terrorism is a cause for concern for both India and Pakistan,” the official source said. It was being pointed out that former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed Dec 27 in a terrorist attack and there have been a number of other terror attacks in various parts of Pakistan.
The change in India’s tone and tenor in dealing with Pakistan became clear from the fact that South Block was not willing to point a finger towards Pakistan for the Jaipur blasts that killed 61 people and injured more than 200 May 13.
“Once the investigation are over and if we have evidence that shows a Pakistani link in these blasts, we will definitely take it up with Pakistan,” the source said.
“When we do that, we expect Pakistan to fulfil its commitment of stopping all terrorist activities (against India) from its soil or territories that are under its control,” the source added.