New Delhi, June 6: After the jarring notes, shayari.

Foreign minister K. Natwar Singh today recited an Urdu couplet — as former Prime Ministers Inder Kumar Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee did — to give direction to India-Pakistan relations.

“Kuch nahin to kam se kam khwab-e-sehr dekha to hai/ Jis taraf dekha na tha ab tak, udhar dekha to hai (If nothing else, I have at least dreamt the dream of dawn. And I have looked in that direction where I had not looked so far),” Singh said on receiving a call from his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri.

Coming barely two days after Singh had spoken to Kasuri, the call hinted at continued concern in Islamabad over his statement that the Simla Agreement was the “bedrock” of bilateral ties.

The couplet — with its emphasis on a new beginning — was Singh’s attempt to reassure Islamabad that the peace process was on track and the new government in Delhi was committed to improving and strengthening ties with Pakistan.

Kasuri reportedly “appreciated the sentiments contained in the couplet”.

Singh emphasised that “in keeping with the well articulated policy of the government”, the dialogue with Pakistan will be carried forward. The talks will cover “every area” of bilateral relations and contacts between the two sides will be “intensified”, he added.

“Both sides had vested interests in promoting good bilateral relations,” Singh told Kasuri, adding that he held the Pakistani leadership in “the highest esteem”.

He repeated for good measure that “the future of Indo-Pak relations does not lie in the past”.

South Block officials said Kasuri “fully reciprocated these views” and thanked Singh for his warm thoughts.

On Thursday, Singh had explained to Kasuri that his reference to the Simla pact did not mean ignoring the Lahore Declaration or the joint statement signed by President Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee in Islamabad on January 6.

But the controversies refuse to die down. There were reports yesterday of some controversial remarks Singh apparently made during an interview to an English news weekly about Musharraf. The foreign ministry denying the remarks.

The foreign ministry spokesman today refused to comment on reports quoting Pakistani officials that Singh might visit Pakistan to attend the two-day Saarc foreign ministers’ meet from July 20.

The ministers could also meet later this month at the Asian Cooperation Dialogue in Beijing. Traditionally, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan have attended the meet.

National security adviser J.N. Dixit has joined Singh to assure Pakistan that the Manmohan Singh government was “committed to accord top priority” to relations with Islamabad.

During a meeting with Pakistani high commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan, he said the dialogue would address all outstanding issues, including Kashmir.

The foreign secretaries of the two countries are scheduled to meet in Delhi later this month.

Reagan mourned

Singh condoled the death of former US President Ronald Reagan, describing him as a “special friend of India”.

In a message to Reagan’s wife Nancy, Singh said “President Reagan has been a special friend of India and we salute his initiative that led to 1985 being celebrated as a Year of India in the US”.

He recollected that he was welcomed by the Reagans in White House in 1982 and 1987, an external affairs ministry spokesman said.