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A lunch menu of n-talks, Kashmir
Range of ideas, from Jammu and Kashmir to n-CBM's, were shared in an unpublicised meeting between J.N. Dixit and his Pakistani counterpart.
A broad range of ideas, on Kashmir to nuclear confidence building measures, figured in the unpublicised meeting that India's National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit had with his Pakistani counterpart Tariq Aziz over lunch in Amritsar last week.
In the June 8 meeting - both sides have denied such a meeting ever took place - Dixit met Aziz, known to be a close confidante of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, for the first time at the latter's request at a hotel in Amritsar, privileged sources told IANS.
Aziz came to Amritsar by road through the Wagah border as he did not wish to fly.
The fact that the meeting got leaked in the Pakistani media is attributed to "elements in Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence" who got wind of Aziz's crossing the border and are against a rapprochement in India-Pakistan relations, the sources said.
The meeting was held ahead of talks between India and Pakistan later this month on nuclear issues as well as official-level dialogues, first between the joint secretaries and followed by that between the foreign secretaries.
The "conversation" - the sources insist it was not so much a structured meeting as a getting to know each other interaction - between Dixit and Aziz centred on the options available to both sides on Kashmir as well confidence-building proposals to forestall a nuclear crisis in the subcontinent.
The "conversation" took place as both sides are keen to keep the momentum going on the peace process that culminated in the meeting between former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Musharraf in Islamabad at the beginning of this year.
Dixit briefs Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on security issues every morning.
When asked, Dixit said he had no knowledge of such a meeting and offered no comments.
The US has been nudging the two sides on the need to keep the dialogue going so that some progress is made towards ultimate resolution of the two main "flashpoint" issues that have been a source of concern for the international community for their global implications - the nuclear rivalry and the Kashmir dispute.
Aziz and his former Indian counterpart Brajesh Mishra played a key back-channel role, through a series of secret meetings and conversations, in facilitating the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit Jan 5 and their joint statement the next day, events that took everyone by surprise as both sides had till then assiduously disavowed the possibility of a one-to-one meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the SAARC summit that Vajpayee had gone to attend.
There is a possibility of External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh visiting Islamabad next month to attend the ministerial conference of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
