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| Wednesday, 29 September 2004 |
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Manmohan: India "can do business" with Musharraf GENEVA, Tuesday (PTI,Reuters) Observing that he was "encouraged" by his meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New York, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed confidence that "we can do business" with him. "I believe in General Musharraf we have a person with whom we can do business," Singh told reporters accompanying him when asked whether he would describe his meeting with the Pakistan President an "unusual encounter". Singh, who met Musharraf on September 24 and termed it as "new beginning" and a "historic day", recalled that before he had embarked on this trip, he had said that his meeting with Musharraf would be an essay in mutual comprehension. "I found the best way to size up for him to form an opinion of me and for me to get something of his personality...Was to meet one to one," Singh said. Meanwhile the leaders of India and Pakistan said on Monday that their meeting in New York last week had furthered the peace process. "This was a very good meeting. We have agreed to extend forward the composite dialogue process," Singh said of his first meeting with Musharraf. "This will help in good relations between our two countries," he told reporters on his return to New Delhi. Musharraf, in an interview published in Monday's International Herald Tribune, said: "The current situation is encouraging in that we have started a dialogue process and confidence-building measures. "Both sides have to move forward in harmony, but we cannot rush ahead without resolving our disputes." A series of measures to build mutual confidence, including business and sporting exchanges and new travel and visa rules, were introduced after Singh's predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee met Musharraf in Islamabad in January. Since then, however, peace talks have made little headway over Kashmir, the divided region at the heart of two of three wars between mainly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. |
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