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Ex-NSA had differences with PM over Pakistan: Wiki

September 03, 2011 17:03 IST

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former National Security Advisor M K Narayanan held different opinions about talks with Pakistan, a cable released by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has revealed.

The former NSA has described Dr Singh as a "great believer" in talks and negotiations with Islamabad, while Narayanan himself was "not a great believer in Pakistan".

He added that after the prime minister spoke about India's "shared destiny" with Pakistan, he told the PM "you have a shared destiny, we don't".

WikiLeaks also reveals that India and Pakistan had through "back channels" agreed to a non-territorial solution to Kashmir.

An agreement to this effect was reportedly reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

According to the US embassy cable -- dated April 21, 2009 -- Dr Singh confirmed this to a visiting United States delegation, led by then House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Howard Berman in April, 2009, saying the solution included free trade and movement across Line of Control.

Dr Singh told the US delegation that Delhi and Islamabad had made great progress prior to February 2007, before President Pervez Musharraf ran into trouble.

After a series of blunders, WikiLeaks on Friday dumped its entire archive of 251, 287 unfiltered and unedited secret US diplomatic cables online, drawing an angry response from its media collaborators.

Source: ANI