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Pak FM: Pak-India Summit Not a Failure
Agra Summit remained inconclusive and it did not fail, said Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday.
He said Pakistan and India twice came close to adopting a joint declaration on the last day of the Agra summit but "it is unfortunate that the fruition of the exercise was aborted". He expressed the hope that the Agra summit could provide a basis for further dialogue between the two countries.
"Both sides are keen to use the progress that has been made for further discussion, this is our sense and we hope that this sense will be reciprocated from the other side," said the foreign minister.
He said Prime Minister Vajpayee had accepted President Musharraf's invitation for a return visit. He said: "The two leaders are expected to meet in New York in September and continue efforts to promote agreement. The goodwill between them is an asset for better relations between the two countries" he said.
The foreign minister expressed the hope that the full agreement could be reached in the next meeting. "In fact the two leaders succeeded in covering a broad area of common ground in the draft declaration. That will provide a valuable foundation for the two leaders to reach full agreement at their next meeting," said the foreign minister. He said he has also extended invitation to Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Sigh to visit Pakistan.
He said more time was needed to clarify the approaches of two sides on different issues. He said Pakistan expects India will allow APHC leaders to travel to Pakistan for consultations. Explaining the nature of the snags in response to a question the foreign minister said: "The snags relate to relationship between settlement of the Kashmir question and progress on normalisation of relations between the two countries. We came close to arriving at the settlement".
However, the foreign minister admitted that the Indian authorities created hurdles in the way of President Musharraf holding a press conference before his departure from Agra. He said that before the commencement of visit Pakistan Foreign Office had asked the Indian External Affairs Ministry to make arrangements for President Musharraf's press conference in Agra. "We renewed our request in this regard but for reasons better known to India the press conference was not arranged," said the foreign minister.
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