Manmohan Singh before flying out of Tokyo. (PTI)

Dec. 16: India is ready to welcome any new ideas, including President Pervez Musharraf’s recent four-point proposal, that could help normalise relations with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today on the flight home from Tokyo.

Earlier this month, the Pakistan President floated the plan to resolve the Kashmir dispute. He suggested that the two countries agree to demilitarise Kashmir, treat the Line of Control as “irrelevant”, evolve “joint management” of resources such as environment and water and accept self-rule for Kashmiris.

Singh said he was prepared to welcome “any new ideas any time from whosoever talks about them”.

Although Musharraf’s ideas are not entirely new and his proposal is among the many ideas that have been discussed between the two countries, this is the first time India has officially reacted to it.

Singh’s remarks come before external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Islamabad next month.

The Prime Minister himself is likely to visit Pakistan early next year.

Officials accompanying him on his trip to Japan, however, suggested the schedule of his visit to Islamabad would be finalised only after the two sides made “substantive progress”, especially on Siachen.

The Prime Minister said he had always given “high priority” to normalising relations with Pakistan and to solving all outstanding issues between the two countries. He referred to the “very intensive dialogue” between New Delhi and Islamabad over the past two and a half years.

Pakistan’s nuclear programme figured at Singh’'s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Singh “familiarised” Abe with “our pressing concerns”. The two leaders discussed ways to work together to prevent “unauthorised proliferation of weapons of mass destruction”, but it was not “specifically with respect to any one country”.

The Prime Minister said he was “not at all disappointed” that Japan had not expressed its support for the Indo-US nuclear deal during his visit there.

“I am convinced that when the time comes, Japan will be on our side.”

He was also confident that Japan appreciated India’s need for nuclear power.

Asked if Abe’s reference to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards reflected its cautious approach on the Indo-US deal, Singh explained that Washington had given a commitment that it would “help and lobby for us in the Nuclear Suppliers Group to modify its guidelines for cooperation with India.

“Our commitment is that we will put in place an India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA.”

This was the commitment the Japanese Prime Minister had referred to, he said.