Zeenews Bureau
Sharm el-Sheikh: In a major climb down from its earlier stand, India on Thursday agreed to restart the bilateral peace process with Pakistan, saying that dialogue was the only way forward.
"Dekhiye, dialogue ke siway koi chara nahin hai (There is no alternative to dialogue)," Manmohan Singh told journalists after nearly three hours of talks with his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelights of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in this Egyptian town.
The two Prime Ministers met for an hour without aides at the luxurious Maritim Jolie Ville resort, before they were joined by their officials for another two hours of exhaustive discussions.
During the two-hour-long meeting, which virtually
signalled a thaw in relations that had soured after the 26/11
attacks, the two sides agreed to "create an atmosphere of
mutual trust and confidence".
Explaining what he discussed with Gilani, Manmohan Singh said: "We were quite clear that if acts of terrorism continue to be perpetrated, there is no question of any dialogue, let alone composite dialogue.
He said the two sides had agreed to look at the possibility of restarting the composite dialogue process that got stalled post the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008. Foreign Secretaries of the countries will meet and decide on how to go about it.
“There is no way other than dialogue. We should, however, look at whether we need to discuss some old issues that have been the bottlenecks in our past efforts for peace,” he said. “There can’t be any progress for peace if terror and talks are bracketed,” the PM said.
"We have begun the process... How successful we are in achieving that only time can tell... We have an obligation to engage Pakistan."
The nature of the talks had not been decided yet, he added, saying that Pakistan was keen on starting the dialogue process.
“We have not given any concession on the issue of terrorism. No dialogue process can succeed if terrorism continues. Gilani told me that there was consensus was there in his country on tackling terrorist organisations and taking action against them,” Singh added.
Manmohan Singh warned that there should be no more Mumbai. Otherwise, it would lead to "intolerable" situations. To this, Gilani replied: "You test us. We will work with India to prevent such things from happening again."
He also said Pakistan agreed that action should be taken against JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and that the Punjab province government was being convinced for the same.
On Gilani’s divulging that Balochistan also figures in the over one hour of their meeting, Singh said that that the Pakistan PM conveyed that there was opinion of some in his country that India was creating problems in the area through its consulates in Afghanistan.
“I told him the consulates are not of recent origin and we have deep ties with Afghanistan but will discuss the issue in details if Pakistan wanted,” Singh said.
Singh also revealed he had taken up with French President Nicolas
Sarkozy the issue of a ban on Sikh students wearing turbans in
in that country, but was assured there is no such prohibition
on the community.
"When I talked to Sarkozy, I gave him a non-paper
memorandum (non-official document) on how to address the
problem," Singh told reporters.
India will discuss core issues: Gilani
.
Claiming that India had agreed with its point of view, Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday said Manmohan Singh had agreed to discuss all outstanding issues, including the core issue of Kashmir.
Talking to reporters after his meeting with the Indian delegation, Gilani said PM Manmohan Singh had agreed that terror and the dialogue process should not be bracketed.
“We have been able to convince India on the issue of talks. All outstanding core issues will now be discussed,” he said.
There was no mention of Kashmir in the statement which,
however, said that Singh expressed India's readiness to
"discuss all issues with Pakistan, including all outstanding
issues". Under the composite dialogue process, Kashmir is one
of the issues.
On being asked if India did not put any pre-condition like the Mumbai terror attack before talks could begin, Gilani said India was satisfied with Pakistan’s commitment of bringing the culprits to justice.
He informed that the two countries would share "real time credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threat".
“India has agreed to discuss all issues with us. They also wanted to talk about the situation in Balochistan etc. Manmohan Singh pointed out that he was not scared to discuss anything,” Gilani added.
This would be a stand different from the one India has publicly taken with Pakistan. It will be a climb down from the demand of putting an end to terror emanating from Pakistan before peace process, that was stalled after Mumbai attacks, can resume.