July 14, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1424

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NEW DELHI, July 13: India’s External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has said that New Delhi is “keen and determined to make more progress” to normalize relations with Islamabad.

The minister responded in the affirmative when asked if his government was aiming at normalization of relations with Pakistan before the October 2004 general elections in India.

Asked if a solution to the occupied Kashmir issue would also be found, he said: “This is exactly what we are aiming at. All issues will be resolved. Why only J&K (Jammu and Kashmir). We are keen and determined to make more progress with Pakistan,” he said in an interview, carried by Indian daily The Tribune.

To a query about the “give-and-take” formula, which Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani had talked about in the context of the India-Pakistan relations, Mr Sinha said he would not like to “define it at this stage.”

Referring to the concept of composite dialogue between the two countries, the minister said: “We will not go back on Simla or Lahore; we would not like either country to go back on the issue of composite dialogue, and composite dialogue includes discussion on J&K. It is not a core issue between India and Pakistan. That is Pakistan’s view. Pakistan cannot unilaterally say that J&K is a core issue and then try to hold us to that.”

Mr Sinha said there was no defined “core issue” between New Delhi and Islamabad. “There is no defined core issue between India and Pakistan and we will go according to the composite dialogue process which had been agreed to by the two countries. So we don’t accept this theory of core issue,” he added.—APP