Pakistan said on Monday that there is no "hiatus" in the peace process with India and "some progress" has been made in the confidence building measures.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Monday that there is no "hiatus" in the peace process with India and "some progress" has been made in the confidence building measures, including those related to Kashmir.
"Some progress has been made with regard to CBMs and Kashmir related CBMs. There has been no hiatus in the talks," Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said.
She was responding to comments made by India's National Security Advisor M K Narayanan in a television interview that the progress in the peace process has been "incremental".
Claiming that the "delay" has not been from Pakistani side, Aslam said Islamabad has been ready for a long time to settle the Siachen issue and was "more than ready" to move forward on other issues.
She declined to comment on Narayanan's praise for President Pervez Musharraf, who was described as a "credible negotiator" with whom India could do business.
Narayanan was "responding to questions in a routine interview", the spokesperson said.
Aslam said there was no hiatus in the peace process as the Interior Secretaries have met earlier this month and Commence Secretaries would meet tomorrow to improve trade relations.
"Our positions remains that while CBMs are taking we also need to move towards settlement of outstanding issues that have created tension in this region that led to conflict in this regions, particularly Jammu and Kashmir," she said.
On Narayanan's observation that progress has "always been slow", Aslam said Pakistan would like the two countries to move faster "to conflict resolution from conflict management".
"We would like the two countries to take advantage of improved environment to start the process of conflict resolution. We are ready to work to expedite and move quickly on the issues before us. The delay is not from our side.
"We have been ready to settle Siachen dispute for a long time and it is our expectations that there would be forward movement on this. Similarly on other issues Pakistan is more than ready to move forward," she said.
Asked about the agenda of issues to be discussed in the Commerce Secretary-level talks beginning in New Delhi tomorrow, Aslam said the talks would cover a "long agenda" encompassing all aspects of bilateral economic and trade relations.
The parleys will include development of infrastructure, harmonisation of customs of procedures, new items for trade, optic fibre link, exports insurance, business visa facilitation, trade and services and opening of bank branches.
In the Joint Working Group to be followed after the talks, discussions would focus on non-tariff barriers and multilayered tariffs.
"We want to have access to Indian market to increase our exports. We are keen to export cement to India. It is not possible because of conditionalities," she said.
On reports that India has refused permission to Habib Bank to open branches on its soil on the grounds that it was linked to facilitating transactions of militant groups, Aslam said all issues would discussed and it was too early to predict the outcome.
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