NEW DELHI, Sept 15: As he braced for a widely-watched summit meeting with President Gen Pervez Musharraf in Havana, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that a joint statement was not ruled out after their talks.
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri told an Indian TV channel in Havana that Pakistan was prepared to withdraw troops from Kashmir if India was also ready to reciprocate.
Dr Singh told Indian journalists he had no desire to be drawn into a public discussion on President Musharraf’s reported comments that Islamabad would not offer any more “concessions” to New Delhi without a reciprocal pledge.
He made it clear though that all issues relating to control of terrorism would figure in his parleys with Gen Musharraf on the sidelines of the NAM summit.
“I don‘t want to indulge in any public discussion with President Musharraf. I am looking forward to the meeting. We will discuss several issues in the limited time that we have at our disposal on the sidelines of the NAM summit,” Dr Singh told reporters accompanying him from Brasilia to Havana.
Asked about the possibility of a joint statement at the end of their talks, the prime minister said: “This is too early to say. As I said it is a meeting on the sidelines of the NAM conference. We will see how discussions proceed.” Was a joint statement ruled out, he was asked specifically. “Nothing is ruled out, nothing is ruled in either,” Dr Singh replied.
“All issues relating to the control of terrorism will figure in our discussions. I am meeting him on the sidelines of the NAM conference. So, I will have limited time and President Musharraf also will have limited time.”
Mr Kasuri told NDTV that Islamabad would scale back troops from Azad Kashmir if India does the same in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have always said if you scale back your troops, we will match it,” said Mr Kasuri.
Asked whether Gen Musharraf’s remarks on Kashmir in Brussels were provocative, Mr Kasuri said: “In fact, he was at his diplomatic best. He called your prime minister a man of peace. We are always paying your leader compliments. We hardly ever get any back.”
Mr Kasuri also added that it was “good that both sides are trying to scale down the hype around the meeting.”
But when asked whether foreign secretary level talks between both sides could resume after the Cuba meeting, he said: “It won’t be appropriate for me to go into details, but I am generally optimistic.”
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Iranian President Mohammad Ahmedinejad. The meeting, which lasted for 15 minutes, took place on the sidelines of the summit.
