Brussels: Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said yesterday (jan 30,2007) that the composite dialogue with India is making progress and improving the atmospherebetween the two countries. 

"A combination of efforts is improving the atmosphere. We have to move forward,'' said Aziz, addressing the foreign relations committee of the European Parliament (EP) in Brussels.

"The two countries need to move beyond dispute management to dispute resolution,'' he said, repeating Pakistan's known position that the core issue with India is the Kashmir problem.

According to INEP, Aziz welcomed the engagement by the European Parliament on the issue of Kashmir and in a veiled criticism of an EP draft report said he encourages unbiased report for a constructive solution to the Kashmir issue.

The EP's foreign relations committee last week postponed the adoption of the report on Kashmir to the end of February after 450 proposals for amendments were made to the 15-page report.

 Aziz also spoke on his country's ties with neighbours Afghanistan and Iran. He said Iran's nuclear issue should be resolved through dialogue.

On the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, Aziz said,"I think it is a good project. If India is part of this pipeline, we think it will be a great effort to build peace in the region."

Aziz faced some tough questions from members of the European Parliament on nuclear proliferation, human and women's rights in Pakistan and terrorism.

Later, he met NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and discussed the Afghan refugee issue, infiltration of militants into Afghanistan from the Pakistani border and drug cultivation.

Noting that for the first time a Pakistani prime minister addressed the North Atlantic Council(NAC), the top decision-making body of the 26 member alliance, Scheffer said "It is a demonstration of the constructive political dialogue NATO and Pakistan have developed over the last few years."

"Pakistan and NATO have set up a beneficial military to military contact," he said.  

On his part, Aziz told reporters that NATO and Pakistan have shared objectives.

"Pakistan is committed to a strong and stable Afghanistan," said he, adding that the one country that will benefit the most, after Afghanistan itself, will be Pakistan.

NATO is leading a 32,000-strong international security assistance force, ISAF, in Afghanistan. Pakistan and NATO have been steadily increasing cooperation since October 2005, when NATO launched a large operation to help aid victims of the devastating earthquake that struck the country, said a statement issued by NATO Tuesday.

The Alliance has opened several courses at NATO education facilities to Pakistani officers and Pakistani, Afghan and NATO authorities are working together in a joint commission on military and security issues in Afghanistan.

Recently, a joint Afghan, ISAF and Pakistani intelligence centre was opened in Kabul.
 

Aziz, who arrived in Brussels on Sunday after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, also met EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana during his three-day visit to Belgium.