Top Indian and Pakistani diplomats pledged Thursday to strive for sustained dialogue to get the nations' fragile relations back on track and deny militants space to derail the reconciliation process.
India's top foreign ministry civil servant, Nirupama Rao, and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir held one-on-one talks and met with their teams to craft the agenda for a meeting of their ministers on July 15.
"Pakistan and India should work towards restoring confidence and building trust with a view to making it possible to have a comprehensive, sustained and meaningful dialogue," Bashir told a joint news conference with Rao.
"After this engagement, I feel much more optimistic about a good outcome at the ministerial level and good prospects for the two countries in terms of our relationship."
Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers S.M. Krishna and Shah Mehmood Qureshi are scheduled to meet in Islamabad on July 15 -- the third major contact in six months between countries that have fought three wars in 60 years.
India and Pakistan have started a tentative reconciliation process since relations crashed to a new low after Islamist gunmen went on the rampage in Mumbai, leaving 166 people dead after 60 hours in November 2008.
India and the United States blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group based in Pakistan and linked to the Pakistani spy service.
[Source: AFP]
Add a comment
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|