Summit inconclusive, not a failure: Sattar

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JULY 17. Contesting the assessment that the Agra summit was a ``failure'', Pakistan today calimed that the process of the normalisation of relations initiated at the historic city of the Taj Mahal was alive and kicking.

Addressing a crowded press conference here hours after the return of the President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and his entourage, the Foreign Minister, Mr. Abdul Sattar, said the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Gen. Musharraf were expected to meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York to pick up the threads left behind at Agra.

``The Agra summit remained inconclusive but it did not fail. 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 a full agreement at their next meeting,'' the Minister said.

However, Pakistan had not given up its position on any of the ticklish bilateral issues, he said adding the stumbling block in adopting a draft declaration was the settlement of Kashmir issue.

The Minister, in a gentle but categorical tone, advocated the cause of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference as the sole representative of the Kashmiris and the need to provide it a seat at the negotiating table for resolution of the Kashmir tangle at a future date. Refusing to concede India's concerns on ``cross border terrorism'', he termed the turmoil in Kashmir an ``indigenous struggle''.

During his press briefing, Mr. Sattar was at pains to emphasise that both sides, at the summit, had achieved ``valuable progress'' on evolving a structure for a sustained dialogue. An agreement on the draft declaration could not be reached only due to time constraints, he claimed and gave the impression that the differences between the two sides on contentious issues were not irreconcilable.

The structure envisaged tackling the issues of Jammu and Kashmir, peace and security, terrorism and drug trafficking at the political level. Economic and commercial cooperation, Siachen, Wullar Barrage, Sir Creek and promotion of friendly exchanges in various levels would be addressed at the level of high officials.

In other words, Mr. Sattar was hinting that the military establishment had agreed to the 1997 formulation of the Composite Dialogue Process (CDP) in an altered form. The contentious issues among the eight points in the CDP are to be elevated to a political level.

Describing the summit as ``inconclusive'', he mentioned the ``rapport and goodwill'' developed between Gen. Musharraf and Mr. Vajpayee during their one-to-one meetings and the farewell meeting which lasted for over 90 minutes. Mr. Sattar also praised Mr. Jaswant Singh for his effort to make the summit a success.

On the view expressed by an influential section of the military establishment that an ``invisible hand'' (supposed reference to Mr. L. K. Advani) ``sabotaged'' the summit, Mr. Sattar refused to comment.

The first two paras of Mr. Sattar's 625-word statement summed up the Musharraf regime's assessment of the summit:

``Gen. Pervez Musharraf has returned from India optimistic about prospects for better relations between Pakistan and India. Considerable progress was made in summit-level discussions and in evolving the text of a declaration. It is unfortunate that the expected consummation did not materialise. Nevertheless, the President remains convinced that the existing goodwill on both sides can and will achieve mutually desired results.

``Gen. Musharraf and Mr. Vajpayee share a common vision of peace, progress and prosperity for their peoples in the 21st century. The President has complimented Mr. Vajpayee for the gracious initiative to invite him for the resumption of dialogue between the two countries after a hiatus of nearly two years.''

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