News
Friday, June 11, 2010
Pak to support Afghan peace efforts: FO* Spokesman says Indo-Pak trust deficit not a new phenomenon
* Pakistan favours dialogue to settle issues on Iran's N-planStaff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday said that it would continue to support Afghanistan's efforts towards reintegration and reconciliation while the outcome of the peace jirga should be given due consideration at the Kabul conference.
"The peace jirga held in Kabul on June 2 has come up with a broad range of recommendations. As you are aware, an international conference on Afghanistan is being held in Kabul on July20," Foreign Office (FO) spokesman Abdul Basit said in a weekly briefing. "The outcome of the peace jirga, in our view, should be given due consideration at the Kabul conference," he said.
The FO spokesman said that the trust deficit between Pakistan and India was not a new phenomenon. "It is there since decades for several reasons and you are all aware of those," he said.
"We believe that in order to move forward meaningfully and to bridge this trust deficit, it is important that, as agreed by the two prime ministers in Thimphu, we discuss all issues which continue to bedevil our relations," Basit said, adding "this is what we intend to do when the two foreign ministers (from Pakistan and India) will meet in Islamabad in July."
He said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met the Indian commerce minister on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). Basit said Pakistani high commissioner in India also called on Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram to discuss the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting of home ministers in Islamabad due on 26 June.
"Overall I think both our countries agree that we need to move forward in a sustained manner so that the engagement process is not disrupted again," he said.
Iran sanctions: He said that Pakistan had always called for a dialogue to settle the issues on Iran's nuclear programme. "We will continue encouraging all the parties concerned to re-engage in purposeful diplomacy and settle differences in the spirit of cooperation and accommodation," he said.
"Beyond that I would not like to speculate about the implications for the region or why this sanction has come about, as we already know the background. We all know what has led to this resolution," he said.
Basit said that Pakistan had requested Iran to share the findings of its investigation into the incident. "We hope that this will be done as soon as its investigations are concluded," he said.
As far as the Iran-Pakistan gas project is concerned, he said that it was a commercial agreement to meet the country's energy deficit and beyond the purview of this resolution.
Commenting on the prime minister's statement, the FO spokesman said that Pakistan was still fighting the legacies of the protracted conflict in Afghanistan, adding that to address all these issues the country needed a multi-pronged action focusing on reconstruction and long-term development.
"So in this context, the prime minister has asked the international community to step forward and help Pakistan address challenges posed by violent extremism," he said.
He said that the democratic government was fully committed to improve the human rights situation in Pakistan. "There is no denying the fact that there are problems, there are issues that need to be handled and handled effectively," he said. About the Israeli nuclear programme, he said a recently conference in New York passed a resolution to make Middle East a nuclear-free zone. " I think the international community needs to work together to achieve this objective," he said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk