NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan would discuss the drafts of two agreements on non-violation of each other’s air space and exchange of information on troop’s movements at the second round of foreign secretary level talks beginning here Friday.

Pakistan foreign secretary Tanvir Ahmed Khan who arrived here Thursday afternoon for talks, said Islamabad had given draft texts last month and hoped that an agreement would be reached during the parleys.

Describing the sacking of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as an internal democratic development, Khan said there was no change in Islamabad’s foreign policy and the purpose of the foreign secretary level talks was to establish a framework in which the top leadership of the two countries could “open a new chapter in IndoPak relations.”

The new Pakistan government is deeply interested in establishing good neighbourly relations with India by removing the underlying causes of the current misunderstandings and misconceptions, Khan said.

The second round of foreign secretary level talks opens here Friday and will go through Saturday to find ways and means of defusing tension over the Kashmir issue.

India’s foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey who received Khan said he was looking forward to very fruitful and useful discussions. He agreed with Khan that the first round of talks were “very candid and useful.”

Denying that Pakistan was indulging in India baiting, Khan said both sides were “sincerely engaged” in establishing a framework in which their top political leaders could “resolve the causes of the current tension which were unfortunately present at the moment.”

Khan asserted there was no change in Pakistan’s foreign policy and he had been mandated by new Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, to state very clearly at New Delhi that he was deeply interested in establishing cooperative, mutually beneficial good neighbourly relations.

India, he said, had given seven clearly well-defined confidence building proposals. Pakistan had made some proposals and on a number of them the two sides had made “very good progress,” Khan said,

The first round of talks (July 18-19) were “tough” but extremely useful as at the end both sides understood much better each other’s position and that was a great gain.

 

Article extracted from this publication >> August 17, 1990