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India, Pakistan agree to disagree on all issues
Reports and analysis coming from New Delhi and Islamabad suggest that the net outcome of the recent secretary-level talks
ISLAMABAD Reports and analysis coming from New Delhi and Islamabad suggest that the net outcome of the recent secretary-level talks was that both India and Pakistan again agreed to disagree almost on all issues. However, they realized that the dialogue is the only way forward to sort out their problems peacefully.
Most analysts in India and Pakistan had hinted before the Delhi meeting that the Feb. 25 talks would not be productive or useful in view of the prevailing atmosphere and mood of the people of the two countries. They said that the two foreign secretaries, Salman Bashir from Pakistan and Nirupama Rao from India met with their mind set and discussed what the people of their countries wanted. For Pakistanis Kashmir was the main issue while Mumbai terrorist incident was the priority for Indians. Both secretaries were unable to go against the wishes of their people. Therefore, the talks were bound to fail. But thats not the end of the world, the analysts opined. (Continued on Page 15)