India’s foreign secretary will visit Pakistan this week to discuss the disputed area of Kashmir and the continuing threat posed by terrorism, an Indian official said on Friday.
The meeting would mark the first formal talks on Kashmir between the two countries since India broke off peace negotiations in 2008 after terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.
Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India, and both countries claim it in its entirety. The two nations have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.
Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said Indian Foreign Secretary -Nirupama Rao would visit Islamabad on Thursday and Friday and meet her Pakistani counterpart, Salman Bashir.
They would discuss peace and security, Kashmir, the promotion of friendly exchanges and the continuing threat posed by terrorism, Prakash said in a statement.
India is going ahead with the talks despite revelations made by a Pakistani-American in a trial in Chicago last week that Pakistani intelligence was involved in plotting and funding the Mumbai attacks. Islamabad denies the charge.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the trial did not reveal any information that Indian authorities did not already possess.
Last month, Indian and -Pakistani officials met in the Indian capital and agreed to continue working to reduce tension on a glacier battlefield in the Himalayas where grueling conditions have killed more troops than hostile fire.
The home secretaries from both sides met in New Delhi in March and agreed to set up a terrorism hotline and to cooperate on the Mumbai attack investigation — a major step in placating India’s concerns. The secretaries for commerce also met in April.
Meanwhile, Islamabad lodged a protest with India on Friday over the “dangerous maneuvers” of a naval ship it said had hit a Pakistan vessel escorting a ship rescued from Somali pirates.
“Indian navy ship Godavari not only hampered humanitarian operations being carried out by Pakistan navy ship Babur for the merchant vessel Suez, but also undertook dangerous maneuvers, which resulted in the brushing of the sides of INS Godavari and PNS Babur,” Pakistani Foreign Office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said in a statement on Thursday’s incident.
Janjua said the Suez, which had a Pakistani crew, had been released after being captured by Somali pirates.
“This incident constitutes a serious violation of international regulations pertaining to safe conduct at high seas and of the India-Pakistan agreement on advance notice of military exercise maneuvers and troop movements,” she said.
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