Ruling out any redrawing of its boundaries, India on Tuesday said it was open to "cooperative and consultative mechanisms" on Jammu and Kashmir involving the two parts of the state that were actively encouraged by New Delhi and Islamabad. Such cooperative mechanisms can multiply the gains of cooperation in solving the problems of social and economic development of the region, according to the defence ministry's annual report placed in Parliament today.
Emphasising that India wanted good neighbourly relations with Pakistan, for which it had taken several initiatives, the defence ministry said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had already declared a readiness to find a "pragmatic solution" to the Kashmir problem.
Singh has envisaged a situation "where the two parts of Jammu and Kashmir can, with active encouragement of the governments of India and Pakistan, work out cooperative, consultative mechanisms so as to maximise the gains of cooperation".
In an effort to build cordial relations with Pakistan, India has taken several policy initiatives and proposed confidence-building measures to enlarge the areas of convergence and to build trust, the report said.
However, India continues to have security concerns with Pakistan on cross-border terrorism, the ministry noted in the report, which provides a yearly update on defence-related issues.
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