World | India
PM welcomes Musharraf's four-point solution
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday confirmed that he has accepted President Pervez Musharraf's invitation to visit Pakistan.
- IANS & ANI
- Published: 00:00 December 17, 2006
On Board Air India One: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday confirmed that he has accepted President Pervez Musharraf's invitation to visit Pakistan.
Talking to reporters onboard Air India One en route to New Delhi after completing a four-day visit to Japan, Singh said: "I have an invitation from the President of Pakistan, which I have accepted.
Asked to comment on the four proposals put forward by President Musharraf to resolve the vexed Kashmir dispute, which has dogged India-Pakistan ties for over five decades, the prime minister said: "All these matters will be discussed. As far as President Musharraf's four-point solution, we welcome efforts by whosoever talks about normalising relations between India and Pakistan. The destiny of South Asia is linked, and therefore, I give high priority to relations with Pakistan, and to solving all outstanding issues between our two countries, including Jammu and Kashmir.
"If at anytime new ideas come, we welcome them. I would like to say that in the last two-and-half-years, we have had a very intensive dialogue with Pakistan," he added.
It may be recalled that Musharraf had outlined his four-point Kashmir plan during an interview with the television channel NDTV. It called for a phased withdrawal of troops; local self-governance; no changes in the borders of Kashmir; and a joint supervision mechanism in Jammu and Kashmir involving India, Pakistan and Kashmir while reiterating that Pakistan is against granting independence to Kashmir.
When he was asked whether Pakistan figured in his discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the context of the recent proliferation efforts of North Korea, Singh said: "We did not discuss Pakistan's nuclear programme in detail. I used the time at my disposal to familiarise the [Japanese] PM with our pressing concerns, but in a general way, there was a mention about how the two countries [India and Japan] could prevent the unauthorised proliferation of weapons of mass destruction [WMDs], but it was not specifically with respect to any one country."
Asked to comment on how confident he was about getting Tokyo's support for the US-India civil nuclear energy cooperation deal, Singh said: "Japan will be on our side when the time comes."
He maintained that he was not disappointed about Japan's decision to withhold direct support to India on the civil nuclear energy issue.
Describing his four-day visit to Tokyo as "relationship-transforming", Singh said that Japanese sensitivities on nuclear issues had to be respected since it was the only country devastated by atomic weapons.
Singh said he had a sense of satisfaction about the fact that Japan has agreed to engage in discussions with India on nuclear energy. The fact that Tokyo asked New Delhi to go in for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards was not seen as unusual by the Indian side.
The summit visit culminated with both countries agreeing to set in motion the modalities for a global and a strategic partnership.
Securing Japan's backing for the Indo-US deal was one of the major objectives of the visit, and Singh sought that support during his address to the Japanese Diet and in his talks with Prime Minister Abe which concluded on Friday.
According to Abe, the Indian leader had told him that as India grows there would be an increasing demand for energy and nuclear power to cope with the demand. He, in turn, had explained Japan's sensitivities on the nuclear weapons. But the prime ministers agreed that nuclear energy cooperation should be constructively approached under IAEA safeguards.
Apart from the strategic and global partnership, the two countries signed nine agreements, covering a range of areas, including political, economic and defence sectors.
'Stop terror support'
Even though infiltration is down, Pakistan must stop supporting terrorism if peace is to return to Jammu and Kashmir, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said yesterday. He also maintained there would be no delays in the way of the armed forces procuring the "most modern" equipment.
The government was also working towards improving the living and working conditions of soldiers posted in difficult areas, as also addressing the psychological problems of the troops in the wake of a large number of suicides and murders of senior officers by soldiers, he said.
Antony was addressing a press conference, his first since assuming office, on the sidelines of a function to observe Vijay Diwas. It was on December 16, 1971 that 93,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered as the Indian Army marched into Dhaka, capital of the erstwhile East Pakistan, to herald the birth of the independent nation of Bangladesh.
Gifts
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented Emperor Akihito with a marbled table top having an inlay of the Taj Mahal. Empress Michiko was presented with an embroidered Jamawar shawl by the Prime Minister's wife, Gursharan Kaur. The Japanese royals presented the visiting Indian dignitaries with a Japanese ceramic vase. Singh also presented his Japanese counterpart with Buddhist Thankha paintings.
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