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| Friday, 24 September 2004 |
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Musharraf vows bold, flexible approach with India UNITED NATIONS, Thursday (Reuters) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said that this was the "moment for peace" with India and he would be bold and flexible in his first meeting with the new Indian prime minister this week. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Musharraf said talks between South Asia's nuclear-armed rivals were at a difficult stage, but "this is the moment for peace - we must not allow it to slip away." He said the two sides were "entering the difficult stage of grappling with solutions to previously irreconcilable disputes" and that Pakistan hoped that India "shows the same sincerity, flexibility and boldness that Pakistan will demonstrate." The much-anticipated meeting between Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take place today in New York on the fringes of the annual U.N. General Assembly. After sluggish progress in peace talks between the nuclear-armed foes in the past eight months, analysts hope the two leaders can inject some momentum into the process. Pakistani officials have said Musharraf and Singh, who took office in May after the Congress party's surprise election victory, would review all aspects of the talks including the dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. In his speech, Musharraf underscored his conviction that Pakistan and India can resolve their differences, including over Kashmir, through "sincere dialogue" and said the normalization process so far has "progressed well." The latest push to end decades of enmity began in January when Musharraf met Singh's predecessor, Atal Behari Vajpayee. The two sides have since completed one round of formal talks with no breakthrough on the core issue of Kashmir, cause of two of their three wars since 1947. Pakistan insists on a time frame for resolving Kashmir, while New Delhi insists Pakistan must do more to stop what it calls cross-border infiltration of militants. It also accuses Islamabad of fomenting violence in Indian Kashmir, where Muslim rebels have fought India's rule since 1989. Pakistan denies the charge and accuses India of human rights violations in the part of Kashmir that it holds. |
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