NEW DELHI, Jan 1 - In yet another move towards building trust and confidence with Pakistan, India today said it is interested in making the existing open-ended ceasefire 'permanent' even as it urged SAARC countries to emulate Bhutan in flushing out insurgents from their soil, reports PTI. The ceasefire now in place was open-ended and not bound by any timeframe of one month, six weeks or two months, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters at Delhi Airport before emplaning a special IAF Boeing-737 aircraft for Islamabad for the SAARC summit.
"Therefore, India is interested in making this a permanent ceasefire. It is incumbent on both countries to ensure that the ceasefire holds. It is a comprehensive ceasefire because it includes the international boundary, the Line of Control and the actual ground position line in Siachen," he said. "It will be our hope that both India and Pakistan will continue to ensure that this ceasefire remains in place."
This is the first Indian aircraft that will land in Pakistani soil after a gap of two years. India and Pakistan had snapped air links from January one, 2002, in the wake of the terror attack on Parliament. Sinha, who is accompanied by national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, Arun Singh, joint secretary in the External Affairs Ministry and senior officials, was seen off at the Delhi airport by Pakistan deputy high commissioner Munawar Bhatti and senior Indian officials.
Asked whether there will be any bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani leaders on the sidelines of the SAARC summit, Sinha said "there will be meetings. There will be a number of occasions for official meetings and meeting socially. Apart from that there is no other meeting planned." "We are going (to Pakistan) with a message of brotherhood," he said noting that since the hand of friendship extended to Pakistan by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in April this year, several steps have been taken to improve relations.
Referring to yesterday's four Indian proposals including holding of technical level talks for bus links between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, he said "we hope a positive response on them will come from Pakistan." In this manner "we will continue to move forward to make our relations normal and cordial," he said. Sinha said "what Bhutan has done is clearly larger than life as an example before the other SAARC countries" where terrorism takes shelter or terrorists take refuge.
"Those countries are under obligation under international conventions and under the agreement in SAARC to take action," he said. To a question, he said he would consider the upcoming summit extremely successful if the grouping was able to sign the Social Charter, a framework agreement on SAFTA, agree on an additional protocol on terrorism and come out with a concrete programme of action to fight poverty in South Asia. "Our hope is that on these SAARC issues, concrete progress is made," he said.