From Dispatches DHAKA: Pakistan has accused India of changing its position on the vexed Siachen glacier issue.
The Pakistan Ambassador to Bangladesh, Riaz Hossain Khokar told a meeting of the Overseas Correspondents Association Bangladesh (OCAB) here that the position the Indian delegation took at the last meeting was not acceptable to his country. “It is a direct violation of the Shimla Agreement. The Shimla Agreement clearly provides for pulling out of troops by both sides,” he said.
Khokar who is leaving Dhaka on September 21 to take up a new assignment at the Prime minister secretariat in Islamabad said three rounds of talks had been held by the two countries, but they were yet to reach a settlement.
“We are talking so that the two sides don’t have to fight again,” he said. “A solution that would minimize discomfort to maintain troops at that altitude is our intention. The Siachen glacier is not a rose garden.”
He, however, felt that after Benazir Bhutto took over, relations between the two countries were improving a small window has been opened, with India” he commented. “It is now mainly in the fields of trade and culture.”
Khokar who earlier served in New Delhi as a senior diplomat sounded optimistic about the future of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). “We can find solution provided we cooperate,” he said. “For successful working of SAARC we must adhere to the fundamental principles.” He did not, however, elaborate.
He indicated that all the seven members had now agreed to hold the SAARC Foreign Ministers meeting that was postponed in July because of Sri Lanka’s refusal to attend.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 29, 1989
