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Friday, July 16, 2010
‘Regional peace depends on India, Pakistan ties’* Zardari tells Krishna composite dialogue will help remove mistrust
* Gilani says Pak committed to cementing bilateral tiesStaff Report
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that a heavy responsibility lies on the Pakistani and Indian governments to engage in sustained dialogue and thus to steer both nations from a path of conflict to a cooperative course.
The president said this while talking to a visiting Indian delegation led by External Affairs Minister SM Krishna at the President’s House.
The president said that destinies of the people of both Pakistan and India and the development of the entire region depended on friendly and cooperative ties between the two countries.
The president said that the resumption of the composite dialogue would help remove mistrust and restore confidence between the two countries and would also help resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, river water, Sir Creek, Siachen and terrorism.
He said the water issue had become serious in recent years, as it was having an adverse impact on Pakistan’s agriculture. He said that the Indus Water Treaty should be fully implemented.
Referring to Pakistan’s fight against extremism, the president said that terrorism was a common enemy of both countries and Pakistan was against militancy and terrorism in any form and in any place. “Both the governments need to work more closely for eliminating this menace,” he said.
The president also stressed the need for information and intelligence sharing between the two counties to prevent any terrorism incident and to ensure that “terrorism incidents do not affect our ties in the future”.
Krishna, on the occasion, conveyed to President Zardari greetings of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Indian delegation also called on Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani. Gilani told the Indian officials that the Pakistani government was committed to “having friendly and cooperative relations” with India.
“The existing environment of goodwill in Pakistan for fostering friendly relations with India should be used to address all the outstanding issues between the two countries before it is eroded with the passage of time,” he said.
Referring to the issue of terrorism, Gilani said that Pakistan, being the foremost victim of terrorism, had lost thousands of civilians and soldiers in the fight against the terrorists. “Still we are vigorously cooperating with the rest of the world to defeat the menace of terrorism,” he said, adding that Pakistan had taken “serious and credible steps” to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice.
He said Pakistan was also steadfastly pursuing the matters agreed to during recent meetings between the two countries. “The ball is now in India’s court to take the peace process forward by resuming the dialogue on all the outstanding issues,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Krishna agreed with the PM on the need to bridge the trust gap between both the countries and to enhance interaction between them at every level.
He said that despite the respective positions of both sides on certain issues, India would continue striving to reach mutually agreed solutions to issues through dialogue.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk