Pakistani and Indian diplomats held key talks yesterday, meeting in Islamabad for the first time in more than two years to build on a recent thaw that could get peace negotiations back on track.
Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his Indian counterpart, Nirupama Rao, went into one-on-one talks and were then to meet with their teams to craft the agenda for a meeting of their ministers on July 15.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has invited his Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna, to Islamabad as part of a process of reconciliation between two countries that have fought three wars in the past 60 years.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals crashed to a new low after 10 Islamist gunmen went on the rampage in Mumbai, leaving 166 people dead after 60 hours of bloodshed in November 2008.
India and the US blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), a militant group based in Pakistan and linked to the Pakistani spy service.
New Delhi suspended a four-year peace process and demanded that Islamabad bring to justice the perpetrators of what is considered India’s September 11.
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has charged seven suspects in connection with the Mumbai attacks, including alleged mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and alleged LET operative Zarar Shah, but Pakistan has said it needs more evidence.
Rao said India would stress the need for “credible action” from Pakistan over evidence that had been provided to Islamabad on the Mumbai attacks.
“We have underlined the need for Pakistan to take this evidence seriously, to take it on board and to take substantive action in response to what we have conveyed to them,” she told reporters this week.
“Obviously, this issue will form a part of our discussions with the Pakistan government during the forthcoming visit,” she said.
The recent thaw in South Asia comes with the US determined to promote regional stability at a critical juncture of the war in Afghanistan, with Pakistan’s own fight against the Taliban seen as critical.
The Indian and Pakistani prime ministers met in April on the sidelines of a regional summit in Bhutan, which set in motion a process to revive suspended contacts at various levels of government.
A senior Pakistani foreign ministry official said the one-on-one talks between Bashir and Rao had got under way shortly after 11am in the first meeting in Islamabad between the foreign secretaries since May 2008.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said issues such as peace, security and confidence-building were up for discussion yesterday.
“Pakistan looks forward to a sustained, meaningful and uninterrupted engagement with India to discuss and resolve all outstanding issues,” spokesman Abdul Basit said.
The foreign ministers’ talks on July 15 will be the third major contact between the two countries in six months.
Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram was also scheduled to arrive in Islamabad for a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation yesterday. He was expected to meet Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
An editorial in the Indian newspaper Mail Today looked forward to ministerial contacts in the coming weeks.
“A positive outcome of the home minister’s visit could set the stage for a successful visit by S.M. Krishna, which could lead to a fully-fledged resumption of the Indo-Pak dialogue process,” it said.
But some analysts warned that the best outcome of yesterday’s talks would merely be more talks and not a resumption of the peace process.
“I don’t expect much from these talks unless India is prepared to talk about issues other than terrorism,” Pakistani analyst Hasan Askari said.
“Therefore the talks may not produce anything significant which means resumption of comprehensive talks between India and Pakistan,” he said.
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