The official Spokesman of the Foreign office and Director General UN and Dis-armament, Mr. Masood Khan gave the key-note speech on the recently concluded India-Pakistan talks & dealt at length on its achievements as well as the modus operandi for the way to further the on-going dialogue process between the two countries. Mr. Khan congratulated the organizers of this seminar for coming up with this unique idea of contributing towards developing consensus on important regional issues and also promoting a culture of tolerance, moderation and mutual respect within the society.

Masood Khan said that the peace efforts have been afoot for a while. But he emphasized that it is the vision, political will and sincerity of the leaders of both India and Pakistan, which has been instrumental in bringing the two sides to the dialogue table. He further said, whilst India and Pakistan have made substantial progress towards resolution of historic disputes, the stakes still remain high and we need to be cautiously optimistic about the future.

Mr. Khan also said “The road map which was announced on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 is indicative of the synergy and sincerity that both sides apparently have brought about in this dialogue process”.

The spokesman of the Foreign office further added that the pace of development has been brisk, cyclical yet mind-boggling. He said,” we started from the high water-mark of Agra but the process collapsed due to conflict and confrontation”. However, Mr. Khan went on to say that in due course and with the help of a number of CBMs taken by both sides respectively and simultaneously, the deadlock was broken with the statesmanship displayed by President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee when the two leaders first met on January 5, 2004 and issued a comprehensive joint-statement on January 6, 2004. The two sides realized that by bringing into play the Nuclear dimension into this region, war no longer remained an option.

Mr. Khan observed that since January 6 this year, there has been a new chemistry between India and Pakistan. According to him, this process has been sustained with the continuous encouragements of the international community which has played its due role. But he also said that it would take not just the vision & statesmanship of the leaders of the two countries but also a substantial contribution from the civil society to lead this process towards success. Masood Khan further added that we still need to negotiate important issues and proceed with open eyes but also went onto emphasize that the repression must come to an end in the Indian-held Kashmir.

He hoped that,” conventional wisdom prevails and the political will and sincerity is maintained to ensure all disputes are resolved amicably”

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