News India Times
July 17, 2015
16
– that’s all you need to know
India
– NEWDELHI
rime Minister Narendra
Modi has agreed to
make a landmark visit
to Pakistan next year,
foreign secretary said
on July 10, signalling a warming
of ties between the nuclear-
armed neighbors after a year of
tensions.
Modi accepted the invitation
to attend a 2016 meeting of
South Asian leaders in Islamabad
during talks with Pakistani Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif on the
margins of a security summit in
Russia, foreign secretary
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.
Experts warned the trip could
yet fall through, but if Modi goes,
it would be the first time an
Indian leader has visited the
country since Atal Bihari
Vajpayee in 2004.
The move demonstrates a
readiness to engage with India’s
longtime rival despite the hawk-
ish stance Modi’s government
has often taken.
The leaders also agreed on
July 10 to work together to rein in
regional militancy, scheduling
rare meetings between national
security advisers and heads of
border security, as well as help-
ing expedite the trial of those
charged with the 2008 attacks in
Mumbai.
Modi and Sharif shook hands
for about 15 seconds, smiling,
before sitting down for talks.
“The very fact that they’ve met
is good,” said Ayaz Amir, a politi-
cal analyst and former lawmaker
in Pakistan. “If they perhaps
agreed to try to tone down the
extremist rhetoric coming from
both sides, that would be even
better.”
Modi’s government has adopt-
ed a tough posture on Pakistan,
insisting that it show greater
progress in prosecuting mem-
bers of the Pakistan-based group
charged with carrying out the
Mumbai attacks in which 166
people were killed.
In April, when a Pakistani
court freed on bail Zaki-ur-
Rehman Lakhvi, accused of plot-
ting the attacks, the move drew
swift condemnation from India,
which warned that relations were
deteriorating.
Clashes on the border in dis-
puted Kashmir have also intensi-
fied during Modi’s first year in
office. On the eve of July 10 talks,
an Indian border guard was shot
dead by a Pakistani sniper in
northern Kashmir, Indian offi-
cials said. Sharif was elected in
Pakistan in 2013 on the back of
promises to rebuild relations
with India, but has come under
pressure to toughen his stance
from hardliners at home, partic-
ularly within the army.
Islamabad has long said that
Kashmir remains the core dis-
pute with India, and wants New
Delhi to hold talks to resolve the
row before moving forward on
other issues such as trade.
The neighbors have fought
three wars since independence
in 1947, two of them over
Muslim-majority Kashmir.
July 10 was the first meeting
between the prime ministers in
over seven months, when they
shared a handshake and a few
words at a South Asia summit in
Nepal in November.
Their last formal talks were in
May, 2014, after Sharif attended
Modi’s inauguration in New
Delhi, a first for a Pakistani
leader. During that meeting, the
newly anointed Indian prime
minister issued a stern warning
that Islamabad must stop mili-
tants from attacking India.
July 10 raft of announce-
ments, made during a joint brief-
ing by Jaishankar and his
Pakistani counterpart after the
bilateral meeting, were wel-
comed by Modi’s colleagues in
New Delhi. They also took some
sectors of India’s political estab-
lishment by surprise.
Most had predicted dialogue
would resume, but few expected
concrete action, said Neelam
Deo, director of the Mumbai-
based thinktank Gateway House.
“It signals from both sides a
willingness to get down to the
real issues,” she said.
But both Deo and Amir, the
Pakistani analyst, cautioned that
people should not pin hopes on
Modi’s possible visit to Pakistan.
“It’s a year away,” Deo said. “If
things go really badly, (he) can
say, ‘Sorry.'”
The two sides announced
they would release fishermen
held in each other’s custody
within 15 days as a goodwill ges-
ture. Scores of fishermen stray
across the waters of the Arabian
Sea each year and end up in jails,
some for years.
– Reuters
P
Modi To Visit Pakistan In 2016 In A Thaw In Relations
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, a world-renowned scientist, arrived at
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Sarangpur, Gujarat, June 20 to offer
his book, TRANSCENDENCE to His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj. The
book describes his experiences with Pramukh Swami Maharaj over a period
of 14 years. Kalam said that he had studied Pramukh Swami’s life and
worked for two years in writing the book along with co-author Professor
Arun Tiwari. During the dedication ceremony the former President present-
ed an autographed copy to Swami Maharaj and said,
“You are a great teacher. I’ve learnt to eradicate I-ness and My-ness in
life.” Kalam also read some passages from his book before Swamiji and
asked him to bless all those who have helped him in making the book possi-
ble. Later addressing some 3,000 youths, Kalama said: “Where there is
righteousness in the heart there is beauty in character. Where there is
beauty in character there is harmony in the home. Where there is harmony
in the home there is an order in the nation. Where there is order in the
nation there is peace in the world. In Pramukh Swami I saw righteousness
and therefore peace in him.”
Former President Abdul Kalam
Presents His Book To Pramukh
Swami Maharaj
Modi-Sharif Discuss Terror, Skirt Kashmir
– NEWDELHI
I
ndian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and his
Pakistani counterpart Nawaz
Sharif on July 10 agreed to elimi-
nate terror and expedite the trial
of the 26/11 Mumbai attack, but
steered clear of the Kashmir issue
during their bilateral talks that
took place after a year.
The much-awaited hour-long
talks on the sidelines of the SCO
Summit in Ufa gave a tangible
push to normalcy in ties between
the two countries.
The foreign secretaries of both
countries, India’s S. Jaishankar
and Pakistan’s Aizaz Ahmed
Chaudhary, said that the Modi-
Sharif meeting was held in a cor-
dial atmosphere.
The joint statement said: “The
two leaders exchanged views on
issues of bilateral and regional
interest”. Both the foreign secre-
taries refused to take questions
after taking turns to read out the
joint statement.
“They agreed that India and
Pakistan have a collective respon-
sibility to ensure peace and pro-
mote development. To do so,
they are prepared to discuss all
outstanding issues. Both leaders
condemned terrorism in all its
forms and agreed to cooperate
with each other to eliminate this
menace from South Asia.”
The joint statement said that
Nawaz Sharif reiterated his invi-
tation to Modi to visit Pakistan
for the SAARC Summit in 2016
which the Indian prime minister
accepted.
They two leaders also agreed
to hold a meeting in New Delhi
between the two National
Security Advisors (NSAs) to dis-
cuss all issues connected to ter-
rorism and have “early meetings
of DG Border Security Force of
India and DG Pakistan Rangers
followed by that of the Director
Generals of Military Operations”.
Decision for release of fisher-
men in each other’s custody,
along with their boats, within a
period of 15 days as well as a
mechanism for facilitating reli-
gious tourismwas also taken.
India and Pakistan “agreed to
discuss ways and means to expe-
dite the Mumbai case trial,
including additional information
like providing voice samples”.
As many as 166 people,
including foreigners, were killed
in the November 26-28 Mumbai
terror carnage unleashed by 10
Pakistani gunmen.
The Modi-Sharif meeting is
believed to have steered away
from the contentious Kashmir
issue. Modi and Sharif met in
November last year during the
SAARC Summit in Kathmandu,
but they did not hold any bilater-
al meeting.
The two had held a bilateral
meeting on May 26 last year dur-
ing the swearing-in of Modi.
For Modi, who has accepted
Sharif’s invite to attend the 19th
SAARC summit in Islamabad in
2016, it will be his first visit to
Pakistan after becoming prime
minister, and will provide anoth-
er opportunity for both leaders to
hold talks.
Modi and Sharif, who arrived
here on July 9, met informally at
a dinner hosted by Russian
President Vladimir Putin on July 9
night. Both leaders had
exchanged pleasantries.
Responding to questions on
his meeting with Modi, Sharif
said the “foreign secretaries have
made a draft”.
Asked if he was happy about
the meeting, he said: “Yes”.
– IANS
