ISLAMABAD, December 1 (IslamOnline.net) - Pakistan and India Monday, December 1, agreed to resume the suspended air links as aviation authorities from the two countries met in the Indian capital New Delhi.

A joint statement read out in Islamabad by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said the officials in Delhi signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to give effect to the announcement made by the Pakistani President that Pakistan was ready to offer India the over flights rights and the flight operations.

India reciprocated the gesture and the two sides reached an agreement in the pre-planned technical level talks.

The MOU said that the flight operation between the two countries would resume from the first day of next year.

Pakistan hoped that the “goodwill gestures” of unilateral ceasefire along the disputed borders and awarding the over flights rights offered to India would help the two rival nations to talk the major disputes out.

“The gestures recently offered by Pakistan are aimed at the resumption of a composite dialogue with India with the ultimate objective of resolving the major disputes like Kashmir,” Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said, responding to a series of questions thrown on him at a press briefing.

Masood announced that the technical teams of the aviation authorities of the two countries which met in New Delhi agreed to resume the full aviation links with the same level on which they were suspended in December 2001.

Quoting a statement issued originally in Delhi, the spokesman said the flight between the two countries would resume on January 1, 2004, after staying under suspension for a year.

On the eve of technical level discussions between the aviation authorities of the two countries on the question of opening of air links, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf announced to allow India to use Pakistani airspace and to resume flight operations with it.

Earlier in August, the technical teams had failed to agree on terms to resume the air links. Fears were that this time around the talks would yield no results as the two countries were sticking to their old positions on the issues.

But Musharraf in a public gathering announced a major shift in Pakistan’s policy and said he has directed the Pakistani team to offer the Indians an agreement on the air links at the full scale.

Asked about the justification for the sudden policy change, the Foreign Office spokesman said peace through the resumption of bilateral talks was the ultimate objective in the minds of Pakistani policy makers while offering these gestures to India.

He said it was not possible for the two countries to hold negotiations in an atmosphere plagued by firing on the LOC or ban on over flights. “But now that the atmosphere is more conducive, we hope that all this would culminate in a dialogue so that other major outstanding issues and disputes would also be resolved”.

But he made it clear there was no assurance or guarantee by India or by any third country that India would come to the negotiating table. “At this moment, all we have on both sides is hope. We hope that as a result of these gestures, a process of dialogue would be jump started” Khan said.

On the question of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajepayee attending the SAARC conference in Islamabad next month, Khan said all indications were that the Indian leader would come to Islamabad.

“We have many indications pointing to the proposed visit,” Khan said, adding that the Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha and the spokesman for the PM Office in Delhi have confirmed that the Indian PM would come to Pakistan.

He said while in Islamabad the Indian dignitary would hold meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister and other senior state leaders as opposed to earlier contradictions from the Indian side.