PM-Zardari meeting: India to seek action against infiltration

New York, Sep 24 (PTI) With infiltration and ceasefire
violations witnessing a rise recently, Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh is expected to seek concrete action by Islamabad to stop
such activities when he meets Pakistan President Asif Ali
Zardari here.
An announcement on launch of cross-L.o.C. trade in Jammu
and Kashmir next month is also expected after the meeting, the
first between the two leaders since Zardari became the
President earlier this month.
The issue of spurt in ceasefire violations and
infiltration is expected to figure prominently in the talks,
with Singh likely to underline that such activities do not
help in the normalisation of relations and need to cease to
ensure conducive atmosphere for carrying on the dialogue
process.
Revealing his mind ahead of his meeting with Zardari,
Singh said on Tuesday that Pakistan must address the rising
issue of cross-border terrorism.
He said India and Pakistan faced "enormous challenges"
and "we have to convert these challenges into opportunities
and see how peace can be brought and how we can work
together."
"We welcome the advent of democracy in Pakistan. We are
looking forward to working with them and how we can work
together," the Prime Minister told journalists accompanying
him on the U.S. visit.
Official sources accompanying the Prime Minister said
India expects Zardari to come out with steps to end rising
incidents of cross-border terrorism and ceasefire violations.
It is up to Zardari to find a way out to remove the
impediments in normalisation of Indo-Pak relations, they said.
India has been concerned over the spurt in anti-India
activities emanating from territories controlled by Pakistan
and even said it had put a "strain" on the composite dialogue.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon last week said
Pakistan needs to fulfill its promises made to India to enable
forward movement in the ties which have gone through
"difficult times" recently.
He underlined that an atmosphere free of violence and
terror was necessary for the dialogue process between the two
countries to move ahead.
Contending that both the countries needed to move the
dialogue forward in "our mutual interest", he made it clear
that Pakistan was required to "demonstrate commitment to
various promises that were made before, for instance prevent
ceasefire violations or cross-border terrorism. We hope that
will be advanced during the meeting".
India, however, is not pinning too much hope on Zardari's
capability to take concrete action, with official sources
suggesting that he is not really in charge as there are
multiple power centres.
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir reacted sharply
to this assessment, saying it was "quite off track" and was
"not really helpful".
He asserted that Zardari was performing his duties "very
correctly".
Cross-L.o.C. confidence building measures are also high
on the agenda of the talks between Singh and Zardari. In this
regard, they are likely to announce launch of trade on
Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot routes next month.
At an official-level meeting in New Delhi on Monday, the
two countries finalised modalities for the commerce, including
the list of items to be traded possibly duty free besides
aspects like customs procedures and security. PTI AKK
AMT
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