Islamabad/New Delhi, Apr 6 (IANS): India has maintained a studied silence over the forthcoming meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari even as Islamabad Thursday said all issues will be on the table and hoped that the talks will contribute to intra-regional peace.
With some rightwing elements in Pakistan like suspected 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed upping the pressure, Islamabad has stressed that the talks did not mean it has compromised on on the "core issue" of Kashmir or its nuclear deterrence.
In the first presidential visit from Pakistan in the last 7 years, Zardari, accompanied by a 40-member strong delegation, touches down in New Delhi Sunday morning. Interior Minister Rehman Malik will be the sole minister accompanying Zardari on this important visit.
Zardari will holds talks with Manmohan Singh at the latter's official residence and have lunch with him before flying to Ajmer to offer prayers at at the Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.
The two sides have been keeping details of the visit under wraps. Indian officials have been circumspect about the possible agenda for talks. but informed sources say the meeting could be substantive and is expected to last around an hour. All issues will be on table, said the sources in New Delhi.
With Zardari's sudden plan to visit India taking both sides by surprise, Pakistan's foreign office Thursday raised hopes for the forthcoming talks between Manmohan Singh and Zardari.
"We are of the view that the upcoming meeting between the president (Zardari) and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over lunch will contribute towards achieving the president's vision to promote intra-regional peace and prosperity in this part of the world," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters here.
He stressed that Pakistan is looking forward to a "constructive engagement" and added that the two leaders "would discuss all the issues which continue to take priority in our bilateral relations".
"These meetings at the summit level are always very helpful but that does not mean that we have compromised on our principled positions on other issues, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute", Basit said in response to questions about Zardari's visit to India.
The spokesperson said the Kashmir dispute is a "core issue" between the two countries and Pakistan believes that its "just and fair settlement is a sina qua non for establishing viable and lasting peace in South Asia", he said. "There is no question about changing our position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute", he stressed.
The spokesperson also asserted that Pakistan will continue tom maintain the credibility of its nuclear deterrence when he was asked about the recent induction of a Russian-made nuclear submarine in the Indian Navy.
Ahead of Zardari's visit, there has been largely positive sentiments in both India and Pakistan except for a small group of hardliners. With the US targeting him with a $10 million bounty, Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and 26/11 mastermind, upped the ante.
"Pakistan should talk to India at all levels and we should strongly raise all the issues with them," said Saeed. "We should raise the Kashmir issue with them, we should talk to them about the river water shortage that India is inflicting upon us," he said.
"If Zardari strongly raises these issues with them, then visiting India in itself is not something we oppose. But if the visit is meant as a means to conceding ground to India on bilateral trade at the expense of the Kashmir issue, then of course we cannot support it," he added.
With such statements emanating from Saeed, it will not be surprising if Manmohan Singh renews request to Zardari to rein in the virulent anti-India dialogue who has been vitiating the resumed peace process between the two countries.