May 27, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24,1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 26: A visiting Indian opposition politician said on Monday that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was serious to resume planned peace talks with Pakistan and that he hoped “something will come out” of them.

“There is a good atmosphere, there is a good opportunity, and I pray to God that negotiations start,” Mani Shankar Aiyar, a Congress party member of the Indian parliament, told reporters after a meeting with “old friend” Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

He said the dialogue, offered by Mr Vajpayee last month and welcomed by Pakistan, should be “uninterrupted and uninterruptible”.

“... (we should continue talking and...I don’t know (whether) it will be one week or one year or 10 years but, as soon as possible, something will come out,” he added.

Mr Aiyar, also a member of the Congress central committee who is in Islamabad to attend a regional seminar, described his meeting with Mr Kasuri as a discussion with an old friend with whom he studied in Lahore 42 years ago and had been meeting later during a diplomatic assignment in Pakistan.

“We have talked about how to improve our relations, and I feel that Khurshid ... is a man of honour, a man of his word.”

“And I have said (in India) that because he is a man of his word, we should take him at his word and keep him to it,” he said about the foreign minister’s statements about Pakistan’s desire to have good relations with India.

But Mr Aiyar declined to say when the talks could begin.

“We had a constructive discussion and learnt a lot. I hope I have been able to give him some acquaintance with new dimensions. But it will be quite wrong for me to share the substance of our conversation,” he said.

Asked how serious was Mr Vajpayee about resuming talks, Mr Aiyar said: “I think he is serious. But I think there is a lot more work to be done before we can convert this seriousness of intent into a serious dialogue and I am, therefore, glad that the government of India has abandoned the path of rushed summits and has declared that they are going in for a step-by-step approach beginning with talks about talks. I think that’s the logical approach.”

Asked whether Mr Vajpayee had offered the talks in view of the coming state elections in India, Mr Aiyar said: “Isn’t it a wonderful thought that if elections are coming and the prime minister thinks that having good relations with Pakistan is a sound political move.”

Answering another question, he said he had “absolutely no doubt” that there is cross-border terrorism in Kashmir as alleged by India but denied by Pakistan.

But he said he is glad that it was “no longer being made a definite precondition” by India for the commencement of the talks.

“And the hope is being expressed that as the talks begin this cross-border terrorism will also decline,” he added. “So I don’t think this is the main hurdle in the way of talks. Hurdle is to make it a precondition, and I hope that if we have comprehensive dialogue we will be able to move forward.”