SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES PAKISTAN, INDIA TO PERSEVERE
IN EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH DIALOGUE
The following statement was issued today by the Office of the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:
Following the summit meeting in Agra between Prime Minister Vajpayee and General Musharraf, the Secretary-General would like to encourage both leaders to regard this meeting as the first step in a process, and to persevere with their efforts to establish a sustainable bilateral dialogue so as to resolve their differences.
A sustained Indo-Pakistani dialogue, especially at the highest level, is sorely needed, and the summit should be seen as an important step towards this.� It would have been too much to expect major breakthroughs on the difficult issues of substance from a first meeting.� The fact that the two leaders are talking can contribute to an easing of tensions, especially on the question of Kashmir.� This is in the interest of both India and Pakistan, as well as of the entire South Asian region.
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