New agenda once ties improve: Kasuri

Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Friday said a new agenda may drive Indo-Pak relations if ties between the two countries improve.

He said both sides made compromises in Islamabad when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee met President Pervez Musharraf met on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit earlier this month.

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"The joint statement [issued in Islamabad on January 6] addresses the concerns of both the countries. Humiliation of any party by the other cannot deliver durable peace. That is the lesson of history." Kasuri said in an interview to Friday Times.

On the justification of having a huge army, he said: "Let relations improve and peace prevail. Then there will be a new agenda. Even the countries that have peace on their borders maintain armies. If the threat perception decreases, it will have an effect on the defence expenditure. But let that situation arise first. It is still premature to respond to this question."

To a question why Islamabad is shying from acknowledging the US role in the Indo-Pak breakthrough, he said the US role is being projected in a very negative manner as 'US pressure.'

"That conveys the message that we [Pakistan] have been pushed against our wishes to make some compromises on our
national interests. This is not the case. We are happy the US is taking a lot of interest. Colin Powell [US Secretary of State] has spoken to me six times in the last four weeks. We appreciate the US role and recognise it," he said.

Emphasising that Pakistan and India are not small countries, Kasuri said being nuclear states, they could cause each other devastating harm. "That is why the international community is taking interest in us. It is not asking Pakistan to give up its vital national interests."

To a pointed query whether Pakistan's 56-year old Kashmir policy was wrong, Kasuri stuck to the line that Islamabad always held that Kashmir is a 'dispute.'

"Much has changed in the world. But our consistent position has been that Kashmiris' aspirations must be addressed for a durable peace in South Asia. It is a question of using different means to achieve the objective," he said.

Kasuri said the joint statement takes into account the priorities of both sides. "It is not a one-sided affair. I don't like the idea of judging this process as a cricket match that somebody would win and somebody would lose. I think both have won."

Asked what was the guarantee that this time the peace process would be sustained, he said: "There is no guarantee. We are not in the business of guaranteeing. Common sense and realisation of  real national interests on both sides are guiding them. That will, hopefully, sustain the process. We need a peace partner and it takes two to tango. If we fail, it will be most unfortunate."