Islamabad, July 21
India today conveyed to Pakistan its concerns over cross-border terrorism and asserted that there was no simplistic solution to the vexed Kashmir problem as Foreign Ministers of the two countries discussed various confidence building measures and decided to meet again in New Delhi on September 5 and 6.

New Delhi’s concerns over cross-border terrorism and infiltration were conveyed by External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh to his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri during their 90-minute breakfast meeting here, their third in two months.

Sources said the Indian side made it clear that there was no simplistic solution to the Kashmir issue and that it would watch the action taken on the ground to stop cross-border terrorism and infiltration and would not go by assurances.

On its part, the Pakistani side said it recognised the threat posed by terrorism and would do its best to deal with it.

Emerging from the meeting, Singh said at a joint press conference with Kasuri that “cross-border terrorism, infiltration and other issues were discussed.”

Kasuri said fundamental issues, including Kashmir, also came up during the parleys.

The two leaders also discussed various Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) like launch of bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and establishing a rail link between Khokhrapar in Sindh and Munnabao in Rajasthan and speeding up the process of opening respective Consulates in Karachi and Mumbai.

Both sides said the talks were held in “frank and friendly” manner and agreed the engagement process had to be a “sustained” one.

During the parleys, India raised the issue of early release of 400 fishermen, other civilian prisoners including 60-70 Sikh youths who are in Pakistani jails after being duped by unscrupulous travel agents.

The two ministers said that all bilateral issues were discussed today and they would have “substantive” talks when they meet in Delhi in September.

“Hopefully, we will have something more to offer when we meet in September,” said Singh, who later met Pakistan’s interim Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain.

Foreign Secretaries will meet on September 4 to review the progress on all the eight outstanding issues, including peace and security and Jammu and Kashmir.

Kasuri said: “We hope to continue the dialogue and hope we can announce greater progress when we meet in New Delhi.”

On the issue of terrorism, New Delhi recognises that Islamabad has limits to which it can go cracking down on the scourge as there were several factors associated with it. India also does not want that the Indo-Pak relations be held hostage to terrorism, although it will continue to voice its concerns over the problem.

Kasuri at a separate Press conference later said he held “honest and candid” talks with Singh. “Everything that concerns Pakistan was raised at the meeting. Everything that concerns India was also discussed,” he said.

Kasuri told Singh that his country was encouraged by the continuity of the dialogue process which has seen steady progress since January and asserted that all parties in Pakistan, including fundamentalists, were supportive of the peace initiative.

The sources said there was good rapport between the two Foreign Ministers and that there was a real engagement now.

On Kashmir, India has made a number of proposals that include enhancing people-to-people contacts including visits to holy sites and trade and commercial exchanges.

New Delhi has conveyed that while there was a coalition government in place in India, there was across-the-board support from political parties to the dialogue process.