No commitment over joint statement by Indo-Pak foreign secrataries

Thursday, 16 July 2009, 14:50 IST
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Sharm-el-Sheikh: A day before the much anticipated meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, India Wednesday remained noncommittal about whether the two leaders would issue a joint statement as their foreign secretaries continued their discussions till late in the evening. Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir for a 90-minute one-on-one meeting Tuesday night. And, on Wednesday the discussions continued. "We are still in a conversation and we are still talking," Menon told reporters in a briefing late Wednesday, adding that the two had met several times during the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in the day. And the day would in all likelihood stretch late into the night as the two top diplomats ironed out differences over key issues before the prime ministers' scheduled meeting Thursday morning. "Whether there is a joint statement or not, we'll let you know tomorrow," the foreign secretary said amid speculation over whether the Manmohan Singh-Gilani meeting would result in something tangible to take the India-Pakistan relationship forward. Pakistan's dossier on the probe into the Nov 26 Mumbai attacks, presented to the Indian charge d'affairs in Islamabad Saturday night, contained the identities of five people who are under arrest. It also lists nine proclaimed offenders they are looking for, Menon disclosed. The two foreign secretaries had been mandated to discuss terrorism and what Pakistan was doing to prevent terror attacks from its soil against India and report back to their leaders. This decision was taken when Manmohan Singh met Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg last month. "We had a good, detailed discussion. He described the situation as he saw it, I told him our concern, we are still talking," Menon said about his meeting with Bashir. The issue of Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 26/11 attacks whose case is up for hearing in the Pakistani Supreme Court, was also discussed. Both the Punjab and the federal governments had appealed against his release by the Lahore High Court in June. But the Punjab government has withdrawn its appeal on grounds that there was not enough evidence against him. India was still looking for clarity on the issue, Menon said. He stressed on "credible action" from Pakistan to bring the Mumbai perpetrators to book, and credible action to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism. In an interview to the Indian TV channel NDTV, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Bashir had said after his meeting with Menon Tuesday night that a joint media appearance by Manmohan Singh and Gilani "would probably be unavoidable". "The stakes here are too high just to link them to one or other issue. I think we are very clear on a lot of matters; we understand the Indian position that is centred on the issue of Mumbai and post Mumbai. We want to get past that," he said in response to a question on Hafiz Saeed.
Source: IANS
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