Don't jeopardise future talks with Pak.: Dubey

GANGTOK, AUG. 19. The former Foreign Secretary, Mr. Muchkund Dubey, has said that India and Pakistan should seek every opportunity to meet and discuss bilateral issues in their future meetings and desist from making statements which appear to be `contradictory'.

The two countries should meet both on the sidelines of the ensuing United Nations General Assembly meeting and also in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meet, despite recent `contradictory statements' by the two sides following the Agra summit, Mr. Dubey told PTI yesterday.

Airing his view on the Agra summit, the former Foreign Secretary said while it was stated, immediately after the summit, that no agreement was possible because of Pakistan's 'rigid stand', later the Prime Minister told the Rajya Sabha that an `understanding' was reached on how to pursue the Kashmir problem which was subsequently denied by Pakistan.

The two countries should now start thinking seriously about when to meet and in what format to resume and continue the talks, Mr. Dubey, also the Deputy Chairman of the Sikkim Planning Commission, said.

``I sincerely hope the trend of unilaterally claiming credit or blaming the other (on the Agra summit) and thereby provoking contradictory statements would now stop,'' Mr. Dubey said.

He said in such future meetings between the two sides, `sharper' differences might come out forcing the two neighbours to `seriously consider readjusting' their positions.

``Because without that... there would be stalemate on substantive issue,'' Mr. Dubey said emphasising that talks would and should continue. The former Foreign Secretary said the statements made by the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, on the level of `preparedness' for the summit did not add anything to the understanding of what happened there.

He said Pakistan's not putting up a draft during the summit was no indication of their preparedness. ``It could just be a tactic,'' he said.

Overplayed by media

The whole issue of `lack of preparedness' was `overplayed' both by the media and the opposition parties and Mr. Jaswant Singh became a `victim' of this, Mr. Dubey said.

Having long experience in diplomacy it was `unthinkable' how irrespective of an agenda or a structured format for discussion either of the two sides would go on to make preparations for a summit, he said.

- PTI

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