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| Saturday, 22 May 2004 |
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India's Singh says peace with Pakistan a priority NEW DELHI, Friday (Reuters) Indian prime minister-elect Manmohan Singh vowed on Thursday he would place top priority on carrying forward a nascent peace process with Pakistan and hold talks with all Kashmiri groups to resolve the vexed dispute. While the process would move forward in the direction charted by the outgoing government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Islamabad, the conservative foreign policy of Singh's Congress party may slow it down, analysts said. "We seek the most friendly relations with our neighbours, more so with Pakistan than with any other country," Singh said, days before the rivals hold talks on nuclear confidence-building measures as part of a peace roadmap agreed by Vajpayee. "We must find ways and means to resolve all outstanding problems that have been a source of friction and the unfortunate history of our relations with Pakistan," said Singh, who was born in what is now Pakistan's Punjab province. "We should look to the future with hope. It is not impossible." Islambad welcomed Singh's comments and said they were positive and constructive. "Pakistan also wants to work towards the creation of a stable and peaceful neighbourhood," Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told Reuters. Separately, President Pervez Musharraf told a security conference that Pakistan seeks peace with India through the resolution of all disputes, including the "core dispute" of the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. Kashmir, the cause of two of the three wars fought by the neighbours since independence from Britain in 1947, remains at the heart of their rivalry. "We are sincere in this effort," Musharraf said, adding that it would open up the vast mutually beneficial trade, commercial and economic potential of the South Asian region. Pakistan had taken "bold initiatives" for regional peace, including reduction in the size of its army, and calling for nuclear-free South Asia, Musharraf added. "This underscores our desire for peace and economic development as a priority." Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan were on the brink of a fourth war in 2002 - over Kashmir - but ties have warmed after Vajpayee last year launched a fresh bid to make peace. |
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