NEW DELHI July 8: India’s External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of a separate meeting between Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal and Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Riaz H. Khokhar in Kathmandu, saying this was not part of the step-by-step approach New Delhi had in mind.
The foreign secretaries-level meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is beginning from July 9 in Kathmandu.
The minister was talking to journalists here on the eve of publication of a reported titled ‘India-2003-04: Reliable business partner, attractive FDI destination.’
Referring to the possibility of a foreign secretaries’ meeting, Mr Sinha said: “I don’t think so. This is not a part of our step by step approach.”
Referring to the pace of the progress of the peace initiative between India and Pakistan, Mr Sinha said: “I think, it is going in the right direction.”
A spokesman for the Indian external affairs ministry also told journalists later: “There is no plan for a bilateral meeting.”
Commenting on the resumption of airlinks between the two countries, Mr Sinha confirmed that Pakistan had sought technical level talks.
“We said our technical team is ready to hold talks with their technical team. They should tell us when and where. We are awaiting their response. When we know about it, we will talk,” the minister said.
Dismissing journalists’ assertions that the pace of the peace process was slow, the external affairs minister said: “This is not to be determined by the media. We will decide on it. Representatives of both countries will determine”.
Mr Sinha also brushed aside assertions of a questioner, who doubted the concreteness of the confidence-building measures, terming them “only window-dressing,” saying: “The High Commissioner of Pakistan (Aziz Ahmad Khan) has come. Our High Commissioner (Shiv Shanker Menon) is going there shortly. Is this not a concrete step?”
An external affairs ministry’s spokesman declined to give a firm date on Mr Menon’s departure for Pakistan, saying: “I don’t have a date when he will leave for Pakistan.”
Shiv Shanker Menon arrived here yesterday from China and is expected to leave for Islamabad later this month to take up his new assignment.—APP
