One sitting with Krishna will yield nothing dramatic: Qureshi

Ajay Kaul
Islamabad, Jun 29 (PTI) As he prepares to meet Indian
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna next month, Pakistan
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said "nothing
dramatic" should be expected from "one sitting" and emphasised
that the dialogue process should be made "irreversible".
Qureshi, who along with Krishna has been tasked to
bridge the trust deficit, said mutual suspicions were the main
reason for the trust gap and the two countries should work to
remove those.
He told PTI in an interview here that he will make
some suggestions to Krishna for reducing the trust deficit but
refused to divulge these.
Noting that many of the Indo-Pak issues are long
outstanding, he said, "we have to understand and realise that
in one sitting, which is on July 15, nothing dramatic is going
to happen. We are not magicians."
Qureshi contended that "we will do our best to create
an enabling environment so that we can gradually proceed
towards what we want to achieve. What do we want to achieve --
peace, economic development, prosperity of our people and
stability" in the region.
"This is a process. It is a long haul. There are no
quick fixes. There are no easy solutions," he underlined.
Qureshi said he was "very positive" and viewed as "a
big step forward" Krishna's scheduled trip to Islamabad which
will follow the visit by Home Minister P Chidambaram and
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao.
"The positive thing is that leadership on both sides
has recognised the fact that dialogue is the only way forward.
This realisation led to resumption (of dialogue)," he said.
Describing increased interaction as valuable, he said
the dialogue process should go on and the two countries should
take it to "such an extent that it becomes irreversible."
He noted that Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yusuf
Raza Gilani have given mandate to him and Krishna to create an
"enabling environment", "suggest steps to build confidence"
and take measures that will narrow the trust deficit.
Singh and Gilani, during their meeting on April 29 in
Thimphu, decided that the Foreign Ministers of the two
countries will meet to discuss ways to reduce trust deficit
which is essential for improvement of relations.
Asked about the main reason for the trust deficit,
Qureshi replied, "suspicions." He said it was on both sides.
"How can we reduce it? We can reduce it by engaging,
by understanding, by listening to each other, by sitting
together and the more frequently we meet across the board, I
think the more chances are the suspicion levels will gradually
start going down," he emphasised.
Asked if he meant that removal of suspicions would
bridge trust, he said, "I would say that, to an extent." PTI