We are moving in tandem: India

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told his Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday that India was willing to discuss all outstanding issues, including Kashmir.

"Dr Manmohan Singh told the Pakistani prime minister that there was no change in India's stand. It remains the same whatever Dr Singh had told President [Pervez] Musharraf in New York..." Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said in New Delhi.

"We are moving forward in tandem. We are discussing all other issues, including that of Jammu and Kashmir, with Pakistan. The foreign secretary-level meeting will be held soon and it will be followed by the leadership-level meeting in Dhaka during the SARRC summit in January 2005. And Foreign Minister Natwar Singh will visit Pakistan in February," he said.

He said that while Pakistan treated the Kashmir issue as a territorial one, India looked at it on a humane level. "After all what is this Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service all about? This is Indian initiative and we want that the people of two sides of Kashmir should be able to intermingle with each other. We are holding a technical-level meeting on December 7 and 8 where we will sort out other details relating to the travel," he said.

Asked if passports will be required for the travel, he said the issue would be taken up during the technical-level meeting next month.

Talking about the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Saran said that the government was willing to talk to all sections of the people. "We have an elected government in place in Jammu and Kashmir. We are going to talk to them. We are also willing to talk to those who are not elected representatives."

Asked if the government would allow Hurriyat officials to visit Pakistani, he said, "If they want to travel to Pakistan let them apply for the travel documents and then we will take a decision."

The meeting between Singh and Aziz began at 12pm, fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. "We had a restricted meeting between two prime ministers and their aides for forty-five minutes. Then we had a delegation-level of talk for one hour followed by lunch," he said.