ISLAMABAD, Oct 23: Pakistan will formally present its proposal regarding contours of the joint anti-terrorism mechanism with India at the foreign secretary-level talks in New Delhi next month, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri told Dawn on Monday.
Pakistan and India agreed to set up a joint anti-terrorism institutional mechanism at a meeting on the sidelines of NAM summit in Havana last month.
When contacted, Foreign Minister Kasuri said formal discussions on a broad framework of the anti-terrorism mechanism would be a key item on the agenda of the upcoming foreign secretary-level meeting.
He disclosed: “Our side would propose that it (mechanism) should be headed by additional foreign secretaries and include two relevant people from each side.”
He declined to elaborate on the two ‘relevant’ people.
However, there are indications that they would be senior officials of the two intelligence agencies and interior ministries.
In an interview to CNN-CBN broadcast on Sunday, Indian National Security Adviser MK Narayanan also stated that India was thinking on the same lines.
This gives a clear indication that the two sides have been having back-channel discussions on the issue and may well have reached an agreement on the broad framework of the mechanism at a political level.
Sounding optimistic about the potential of the joint anti-terrorism mechanism, Mr Kasuri underlined that it would address concerns of both the countries and help bridge the trust-deficit.
Mr Narayanan also saw it as an ‘opportunity’ but ruled out intelligence-sharing under the mechanism at this point, saying that would be the ultimate hope. Initially the scope of the mechanism would be limited to cooperation in ongoing investigations, he said.
However, the Indian National Security adviser hinted that the mechanism could also take care of certain issues such a money-laundering under a broader framework.
The joint press statement issued at the end of the summit meeting between President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Havana on September 16, 2006 said the two leaders strongly condemned all acts of terrorism and agreed that terrorism was a scourge that needed to be effectively dealt with.
“They decided to put in place an India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations,” it noted.
Reacting to statements by the Indian leadership that the anti-terrorism mechanism would be a test of Pakistan’s sincerity, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said last week that it was in the mutual interest of both countries, and the onus of it had to be equally shared.
AFGHANISTAN: Regarding his visit to Afghanistan, the foreign minister said it would take place in December because he would be preoccupied with almost a dozen high-level visits to Pakistan next month.
“I will visit Afghanistan in early December,” he said, underscoring that Afghanistan remained a high-priority country for Pakistan.
