The Hindu : International / India & World : `Pakistan, India never went so far down the peace road'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 17, 2004

International

International - India & World

`Pakistan, India never went so far down the peace road'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, DEC. 16. Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Jehangir Karamat, has claimed that the composite Pakistan-India dialogue "is in progress" with the "direction and tone" set by summit level meetings "and backed by discreet bilateral Track One talks."

The state run news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), quoted Mr. Karamat as telling the Brookings Institution in Washington that "in spite of difficulties and some provocative activities, the potential for ending conflict and confrontation is clearly discernible. Peace lobbies are developing and gaining influence among the people."

He told the audience that the political capital the U.S. accumulated through separate and bilateral relations with India and Pakistan gave it the influence to keep the situation stable and progressive.

"Pakistan and India never went so far down the peace road before and never before did a Pakistani leader show the kind of flexibility and resolve as is being shown now," he was quoted as saying.

Mr. Karamat said he would not call the situation irreversible, "but I would say that a move back to square one would be classified as a very great folly and not in the interest of either country. Pakistan, with its support for a U.N. presence, its acceptance of U.S. facilitation and its readiness to implement restraint and confidence building measures, is unlikely to do anything to undermine the peace process."

From a policy of hostility and confrontation with India, Pakistan now had a policy of dialogue and conflict-resolution. On the western, north-western and south-western borders with Afghanistan, he said, Pakistan had worked to put in place a border security force capable of undertaking operations to hunt down aliens and terrorists.

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