ISLAMABAD JAN. 4. Ending a nearly three-year-long drought in bilateral meetings between India and Pakistan, the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today met his Pakistani counterpart, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, soon after the 12th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation got off to a satisfactory start.
As the two countries agreed to carry forward the peace process, the Prime Minister, who sought a "courtesy call" on the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, today, will meet him tomorrow. Speaking at a banquet attended by the SAARC leaders tonight, Gen. Musharraf introduced a jarring note in an otherwise positive atmosphere when he called for the expansion of the SAARC Charter to include discussions on bilateral issues, a viewpoint that India has consistently opposed.
The banquet, attended by Mr. Vajpayee, saw Gen. Musharraf calling for the elimination of the "root causes" of tension in South Asia, a known Pakistani euphemism for the Kashmir issue.
Suggesting that all issues be addressed in a spirit of boldness and accommodation, Gen. Musharraf said that Islamabad was ready to play a role in seizing the opportunity to live in peace. He did not, however, refer to the Kashmir issue directly.
Earlier, reflecting a degree of rare agreement between India and Pakistan, the official accounts of today's meeting between Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Jamali and the two Foreign Ministers, Yashwant Sinha and Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, used identical language.
"They [the two Prime Ministers] met in a warm and friendly atmosphere. The meeting [with officials present] lasted for about half-an-hour out of which about 15 minutes was a one-on-one between the two Prime Ministers," Mr. Sinha told presspersons.
Referring to his meeting with Mr. Kasuri, Mr. Sinha said: "Both of us expressed our satisfaction at the progress in our bilateral relations. We discussed various ways of maintaining the momentum and agreed on the need to do so."
Asked whether these meetings could be construed as a formal resumption of the dialogue between the two countries, Mr. Sinha preferred not to get into details. On the terms of the dialogue, he maintained: "I have said what I had to say in my statement already."
Speaking separately, Mr. Kasuri said today's meetings augured well for the bilateral relationship. He had established a "good personal relationship" with Mr. Sinha, which could be used to improve bilateral ties. He had discussed the "bilateral and international situation" with Mr. Sinha.
Accounts gleaned from a variety of sources show that the bilateral relationship has been put on track and a new degree of confidence appears to have emerged.
The sources said that a range of preparatory contacts between the sides, including in the days before the arrival of Mr. Vajpayee to Islamabad, had taken place. In order to maintain the sanctity of the process, officials are reluctant to reveal the exact nature of the contacts.
When Mr. Kasuri was asked what the National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, had been doing in the Pakistani capital since arrival on New Year's day, he replied: "He [Mr. Mishra] is performing his duties... there's nothing particular."
The ease with which the meetings took place after a period of public wrangling on who should seek a meeting first as well as the Id-ul-Fitr ceasefire seems to suggest a prolonged period of quiet contacts between the Indian and Pakistani leadership.
It is still not clear at what "formal" level the stalled dialogue will resume because Islamabad has been insisting that talks between Foreign Ministers would give the process a kick-start.
New Delhi, on the other hand, has repeatedly preferred a step-by-step approach in the light of the Agra and Lahore experiences. However, the sources believe, that the formal channel will complement the ongoing contacts.
Conscious of the possible fallout of Mr. Jamali's decision to skip a reference to the Kashmir issue in his SAARC address, the Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman made it a point this evening to stress that Kashmir was a dispute and did not constitute an integral part of India.
However, in a prepared response on Kashmir, the spokesman said that the Indian leadership was aware of the Pakistani position that Kashmir was a dispute that had to be resolved.
Pakistan, he said, welcomed Mr. Vajpayee's remarks to Pakistan Television that the two countries had to have a long-term engagement for the resolution of the Kashmir issue. The dispute, he maintained, must be resolved through peaceful means and its resolution was in the interest of both nations.
