NEW DELHI, April 8: India's ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) promised on Thursday to pursue talks with Pakistan to resolve bilateral disputes on the basis of a timetable agreed in February between their foreign secretaries.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Defence Minister George Fernandes were present at the release of the NDA's election promises. It implies that the foreign secretaries of the two countries would meet in May or June to discuss the Kashmir dispute and security related CBMs. The foreign ministers would meet in August.
The NDA document hailed India's foreign policy in the last five years of Mr Vajpayee's third tenure, saying it had sought a broadening role for the country in international affairs. The promises on ties with Pakistan echoed proposals by Mr Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party made a day before.
The NDA would "continue the dialogue process with Pakistan for a lasting solution to all the outstanding issues, including Jammu & Kashmir, on the basis of the Joint Statement issued in Islamabad in February 2004," the document released by Mr Vajpayee said.
The alliance would further strengthen the Saarc process, implement free trade in South Asia, and work towards realizing the vision for a South Asian Economic Union with a common currency for the region.
If returned to power, the alliance would "further strengthen our Look-East Policy to deepen the India-Asean relationship; initiate the BIMST-EC process; activate the Mekong-Ganga cooperation initiative; deepen our economic cooperation with Koreas; and enrich our strategic partnership with Japan".
The NDA would further consolidate India's strategic partnership with Russia, with a stronger underpinning of economic cooperation. It would broaden and deepen the multi-dimensional relations with the United States, the NDA document said.
With China, it would expand economic cooperation and continue the dialogue process to achieve a mutually satisfactory resolution of the boundary issue, "which is an objective of strategic interest for us."
The NDA will intensify India's cooperation with the European Union, rejuvenate traditional bonds with countries in the Middle East, reestablish India's age-old ties with countries in Central Asia.
