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| 07 January 2004 | Wednesday | 14 Ziqa'ad 1424 |
Early contacts to focus on trade
ISLAMABAD, Jan 6: India and Pakistan will discuss matters, including trade and people-to-people contact during the next six months before entering into what is referred to as the composite dialogue in the Islamabad declaration, officials told Dawn here.
Officials said India has assured Pakistan that it would hold "sustained talks" from February but New Delhi believed that it would take some time to start the composite dialogue, including talks on Kashmir.
"We were asked to keep in mind various compulsions of the BJP government, including the general elections scheduled for October 2004, which may be advanced to May-June", a source said.
He said that Mr Vajpayee's government wanted to "encash" its achievements regarding the peace initiative during the upcoming elections in India. Former ambassador and former foreign secretary Dr Tanwir Ahmad Khan, while talking with this correspondent, said that India was keen about maintaining the momentum and initially it wanted Pakistan to discuss trade-related issues on a priority basis.
"I believe it may take more than six months by both sides to start the composite dialogue and they would first like to weigh various peace proposals over the issue of Kashmir", he said.
He said that he tended to agree that the Indian government has been advised by Prime Minister Vajpayee's National Security Advisor Mr Brajesh Mishra to hold general election ahead of time and at the same time New Delhi should continue engaging Pakistan in talks on issues like trade, people-to-people contact and cultural exchange programmes.
He said that India has repeatedly stressed the need for discussing trade and economic issues on priority rather than entering into a composite dialogue in order to avoid discussing Kashmir issue.
"It looks to me that India is giving up its hegemonic designs over smaller neighbours and now wants to establish its economic domination in the region", he said.
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