Pakistan pledges to pursue peace as summit opens

Описание: (20 Jul 2004)

July 20, 2004
1. Exterior of hotel venue for SAARC foreign ministers' meeting
2. Flags of South Asian nations flying outside hotel
3. Interior of hotel with opening ceremony of 25th Session of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Council of Ministers, with ministers sitting as panel at front table
4. Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh (right of shot) talking to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Mushad Khan
5. Audience
6. Bhutanese Foreign Minister Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuck
7. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar
8. Pakistani Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain standing up, shaking hands with Singh behind back of Khan
9. Audience
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pakistani Prime Minister
"We in Pakistan are resolved that poverty must not and will not be the destiny of our people (Audience applauds). Let us also resolve today that SAARC must become a symbol of peace and progress, not only to ensure stability in South Asia, but also to win the hearts and minds of the people of this region."
11. Cutaway of Singh
12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Pakistani Prime Minister
"We are satisfied that Pakistan and India have resumed talks. I want to assure all members of SAARC - and indeed the world - that Pakistan is committed to pursuing peace with India (Audience applauds). Ladies and Gentlemen, I am happy to report that with the vision and the will Pakistan has under the leadership of president Musharraf, we have embarked upon making a meaningful effort to resolve all differences and disputes with India including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir."
12. SAARC foreign secretaries listening from audience
13. Row of women in audience
14. Panel of SAARC foreign ministers seated

July 19, 2004
15. Handshake between Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri (right of shot) and Indian Foreign Minister Singh
16. Various of informal evening meeting between SAARC foreign ministers

STORYLINE:

Pakistan's prime minister vowed to pursue peace with India at the opening of a meeting of regional foreign ministers on Tuesday, lending a hopeful start to a conference that inevitably will be dominated by efforts by the group's two largest members to end a half-century of hatred.

"I want to assure all members of SAARC and indeed the world that Pakistan is committed to pursuing peace with India," said Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

SAARC - or the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation - is a group of seven nations including Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

The two-day meeting taking place in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, follows talks between lesser Foreign Ministry officials earlier in the week.

In recent months, India and Pakistan have initiated a dialogue both sides hope will lead to a permanent peace deal and solve the long-simmering dispute over Kashmir, a Himalayan region over which they have fought two wars.

They have set up a series of meetings in recent weeks to discuss less volatile issues, such as water rights, a glacier that has become the world's highest battlefield and control over a border marshland.

The idea is to build confidence before the hot-button issue of Kashmir is breached.

The region is divided between India and Pakistan, but each of them claims the region in its entirety.

More than 65-thousand people have died, most of them civilians on India's side of the region, since an Islamic insurgency began in 1989.







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