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Bangladesh's Talks With India, Pakistan Encouraging: Foreign Secretary
Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary C.M. Shafi Sami Monday said that his talks with India and Pakistan for peace and stability in South Asia were "encouraging" and the process of consultation would continue.
"We feel encouraged by seeing responses from both sides after the talks," the foreign secretary told a press conference at the Foreign Office on conclusion of his Pakistan mission.
Sami went to Islamabad as special envoy of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 22 and held talks with Pakistan's Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf on regional issues, including holding of the stalled South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)summit.
On his trip to New Delhi early this month, he held talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the same topic.
In reply to a question, Sami said he did not give any specific proposal during his meetings with Vajpayee and General Musharraf, but some specific proposals would come up through the process of consultations, he added.
"I can say at the moment that process of consultation at the behest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began and it would continue," the foreign secretary said.
About the possibility of holding of SAARC summit, Sami said the SAARC secretary general recently visited the seven member states of the forum. A technical committee would start working shortly and in the process, meetings of SAARC foreign secretaries and foreign ministers would be held, paving the way for the summit meet.
He dismissed the idea that Bangladesh undertook current initiative to reactivate SAARC and restore peace in the region at the desire of the United States.
"I say in categorical terms that Bangladesh government's decisions are taken in line with the objectives of the country's own foreign policy, not at the will of any external power," he stressed.
Sami said the purpose of his trip to India and Pakistan was to convey concern and perception of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina about peace and stability in the region to the leaders of the two neighboring countries.
Hasina would hold bilateral talks with Vajpayee and General Musharraf in New York on the sidelines of UN millennium summit to be held in the first week of September, he added.
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