Indian and Pakistani officials were wrapping up their latest round of peace talks yesterday, which have focused on terrorism and Kashmir -- the two key issues that have fueled decades of hostility between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon and his Pakistani counterpart, Riaz Mohammed Khan, reviewed the gamut of India-Pakistan relations on Tuesday, including a slew of confidence building steps that the two rivals have taken since they began their dialogue nearly three years ago, an Indian official said.
"The talks reviewed the composite dialogue process, Kashmir and examined ways to implement a proposed anti-terror mechanism that the two countries have agreed to set up," said Navtej Sarna, spokesman of India's External Affairs Ministry, following the first day of talks.
PHOTO: AFP
Tuesday's interaction marked the resumption of peace talks that India suspended after bombs tore through Mumbai's commuter rail network in July, killing more than 200 people. New Delhi blamed the deadly attack on Pakistan's intelligence service and a militant group based in Pakistan -- allegations Islamabad denies.
Two months later, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf decided to resume negotiations when they met in Cuba on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in September.
The key to the resumption of the process was a deal by the leaders to create what they described as an anti-terrorism mechanism that would help them work together to stop terrorists.
India has been pushing for joint efforts to fight terror in the hopes that involving Pakistani security agencies and providing them with evidence of the involvement of Pakistan-based militant groups would encourage the authorities in Islamabad to act against terrorist cells.
Pranab Mukherjee, India's external affairs minister -- who met Khan and other Pakistani officials later on Tuesday -- emphasized the importance of India and Pakistan joining hands in the fight against terrorism, Sarna said.
India and Pakistan have a history of hostile relations and have fought three wars since their partition upon independence from Britain in 1947.
India accuses Pakistan of funding and training the separatist rebels who cross over to the Indian portion of Kashmir and carry out terror strikes. Pakistan denies the charges, saying that it only offers the moral and diplomatic support to the rebels.
Although no major breakthrough is expected at the end of the talks, Indian officials were optimistic the peace dialogue was a positive step.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam’s unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule. The history of romanized Vietnamese, or Quoc Ngu, links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonization by the French and the rise to power of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is now reflected in the country’s “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers. A month after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited,
RSS