Dialogue to be made result oriented: Riaz

LAHORE—Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan on Monday expressed all out efforts would be made for constructive and result-oriented talks between the two countries to pave the way for solution of all outstanding issues.
Kashmir issue, Siachan, Baglihar Dam, peace and security in the region, Sir creek, trade and culture, will be on the agenda of the talks, Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan said this to journalists while departing for New Delhi at Islamabad International Airport referring the talk as a result of Musharraf- Manmohan meeting in Havana.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said that Pakistan should show flexibility as it did earlier and now it was good time for India to show flexibility to resolve all outstanding issues. “ Pakistan and India have history of old issues and it will take time to resolve these issues but both the countries have to show flexibility in this regard,” she concluded.
The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet in New Delhi today (Tuesday) for two-day talks. However No breakthrough is likely on the dispute over the sovereignty of the Siachen glacier at the India-Pakistan talks in New Delhi Nov 13-15. Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan will lead Pakistan delegation, while his Indian counterpart Shiv Shankar Menon will head the Indian officials in crucial talks. The two sides will discuss Kashmir, pullout from Siachen glacier and Sir Creek issues. A joint anti-terrorism mechanism expected to be finalized in the talks.
This would be the first secretaries level contact between the two countries after Mumbai bombings in July. However no breakthrough is likely on the dispute over the sovereignty of the Siachen glacier at the two days talks. Indian troops currently occupy advantageous positions along the 76-km-long glacier and New Delhi says Islamabad must accept the actual ground position line (AGPL) before pulling back its forces that have been on station on the glacier since 1984.
For Pakistan to do so would, in effect, amount to accepting the AGPL as the international border (IB), which would mean a total reversal of its stand that Indian troops retreat to the positions they held in 1972 as laid down by the Simla Agreement of the previous year.
This, India says, would negate the very reasons it sent its troops into Siachen in 1984 to nullify Pakistani designs on the glacier, which rises to a height of 22,000 feet and where winter temperatures plunge to 50 degrees Celsius.
The Siachen standoff is one of eight issues covered under the composite dialogue process India and Pakistan have initiated to resolve bilateral issues, including Kashmir. The two sides had held six rounds of unsuccessful talks on Siachen before the issue was included in the composite dialogue process in 1998. The process then stalled and was revived in 2004. There was another hiccup after the July 11 Mumbai train bombings.—Agencies