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| 04 April 2004 | Sunday | 13 Safar 1425 |
FO says MNNA status to consolidate ties with US
ISLAMABAD, April 3: Pakistan on Saturday said that the 'kind of opportunities' to be available to it as a major non-Nato ally of the United States would be known only after Washington completed the process of extending the status to Islamabad.
Answering questions at a press conference, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said once the process was completed he would go into the kind of opportunities that would be available to "enhance a long-term and sustainable mutual relationship that they had been trying to develop".
The spokesman appeared to indicate that the proposed 'multi-dimensional' relationship as the MNNA, which Islamabad and Washington sought to develop as a 'conscious effort', would be better than their defunct defence relationship of 1950s and '60s. He hoped that the proposed relationship would go beyond the present relationship as a partner in the international coalition against terrorism as it would be based on 'solid ground'.
In reply to another question, he said Pakistan and India were discussing peace, security and other issues and cautioned that "they should not be trivialized" by writing 'speculative stories' in newspapers. He would not go into details.
Mr Masood Khan welcomed recent statements by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani relating to the peace process and described them as 'positive and constructive'.
However, he pointed out that after a prolonged estrangement the two countries had a task before them and that the "whole effort and the (upcoming) dialogue" should be substantive and should help resolve all outstanding issues.
The spokesman said that the technical level talks on the proposed Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service would be held in Islamabad on April 8-9 and maintained that these talks would not prejudice the position held by Pakistan on the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir and the temporary status of the Line of Control.
He said the bus service talks had entered a 'serious stage'.
APP adds: Asked to comment on a reported BJP's 'Vision 2004' in which Kashmir had been claimed as an integral part of India, the spokesman said it was not grounded in facts as Kashmir was an issue that needed to be resolved.
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