Foreign Secys meet to carry forward Agra peace process

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, AUG. 9. The bilateral meeting between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan that is scheduled to take place on Friday is expected to reiterate the existence of the political will to continue the process initiated at Agra despite the acrimonious statements immediately following it.

``We hope to carry forward the Agra process at tomorrow's meeting,'' Mr. Inamul Haq, the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, told journalists today.

Expressing happiness that both the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Foreign Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, had accepted their invitations to visit Pakistan, Mr. Haq said there was also a window for a meeting between the leaders of the two countries next month on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly at New York.

The Foreign Secretary, Ms. Chokila Iyer, told journalists that the meeting had to be seen in the light of statements by both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister that India would continue its dialogue with Pakistan.

The meeting was expected to be short, but its significance lay in the fact that it would be the first official exchange between the two sides after Agra, Ms. Iyer said.

The meeting between the two foreign secretaries is scheduled for around noon tomorrow, and has no specific agenda.

The External Affairs Ministry spokesperson in New Delhi said earlier this week that the two would discuss all issues of bilateral interest at the meeting.

One of the issues that may be discussed is the list of confidence-building measures, announced by New Delhi before the Agra summit, and now officially communicated to the Pakistan Government.

Pakistan had said it would examine each of the five measures and decide whether or not to accept them on ``merit''.

Ms. Iyer told reporters in Chennai that she would also pursue the issue of the 54 Prisoners of War that India believed were being held in Pakistani jails.

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