Talks shelved after 11th-hour rethink

An understanding to restart the peace process was almost reached in New York, says Qureshi.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India had almost reached an understanding last month in New York to resume the peace process including talks on Kashmir, but the nuclear-armed neighbours could not sign the formal agreement after a last-minute ‘change of heart’ by New Delhi.

“It was a repeat of the Agra Summit when everything was ready but India backtracked at the last moment,” disclosed Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi here on Tuesday, while giving an in-camera briefing to the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.

The Agra summit took place in 2001 between the then president Pervez Musharraf, and the then Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. The two leaders were ready to announce an agreement, but the talks collapsed when India apparently changed its position and refused to mention Kashmir in the joint statement.

“The Pakistan-India foreign ministers meeting was scheduled in New York; even the joint statement was ready, but then everything just fell apart,” a committee member quoted Foreign Minister Qureshi as saying.

The committee member, who requested not to be named, told The Express Tribune that according to the foreign minister the Indian side wanted to know in advance, the content of his speech that was to be made at the UN General Assembly session.

Qureshi said his strong reference to Kashmir in the UN General Assembly speech was perhaps not liked by his Indian counterpart Krishna. As a result, the talks broke down and his scheduled meeting with the Indian foreign minister could not go ahead in New York, he added.

The two foreign ministers last met in July this year in Islamabad but failed to agree on a roadmap envisaging the revival of the New Delhi peace process, which was suspended after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Qureshi said India only wanted to discuss issues related to terrorism, but this was not acceptable to Pakistan.

“We want meaningful and result-oriented talks with India. We are not interested in meeting for the sake of photo sessions,” Qureshi told reporters after attending the Senate panel meeting. He condemned the violence in Indian Kashmir, in which over 100 people have died so far since the anti-government protests erupted in June.

He urged India to revisit its policy on Kashmir, saying time had come for the global community to play its role in resolving the decade-old problem.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2010.