Pak-India striving to build trust deficit
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Islamabad, June 26, IRNA -- Pakistan and India in recent months have increased interaction to build trust deficit between the two countries and to pave the way for the planned Foreign Ministers level talks next month.
India had suspended talks with Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai attacks which were blamed on Pakistani based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
It is strongly believed that there is foreign pressure on India and Pakistan to resume dialogue and in this context prime ministers of both countries and other officials have held series of talks, but India has not resumed composite dialogue process.
India insists that Pakistan must take action against those who were behind Mumbai attacks which had killed 170 people.
Pakistan arrested several people including the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, who are under trail in prison.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has invited Indian external affairs minister S M Krishna to visit Pakistan on July 15 to bring two countries closer and discuss steps to carry forward the stalled peace process between India and Pakistan.
Political analysts are of the view that no breakthrough is expected in July Foreign Ministers talks but they describe the high level talks as significant move towards the resumption of full scale formal talks.
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is also in Islamabad to attend conference of regional home ministers which is the first visit of Pakistan by any Indian minister after the Mumbai attacks.
The Indian side is of the view that Pakistan has not taken the action required against Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the Nov 26, 2008, attacks.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said as no credible evidence had been found to substantiate the allegations, the court could not take any action against him.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik however termed the resumption of dialogue process with India as a positive and said that will promote peace and stability in the region.
Earlier on Thursday, Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan had opened bilateral talks to remove misunderstanding and chalk out steps to counter terrorism.
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 has long been pressing for resumption of a “composite dialogue” with India, but the later which suspended the dialogue after the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack, refused.
It should not be difficult to realise the importance of India-Pakistan talks even if they are confined to exploring possibilities of cooperation in the fight against terrorism. An understanding in this area is in the supreme interest of both countries.
The relations of Pakistan and India cannot be termed as cordial since the aftermath of Mumbai terror attacks.
Since independence, relations between Pakistan and India have been characterized by rivalry and suspicion. Although many issues divide the two countries, the most sensitive one since independence has been the status of Kashmir.
India has indicated willingness to listen to Islamabad’s concerns, but opposed resumption of full-scale composite dialogue.
New Delhi is pursuing a step-by-step incremental approach which it says will depend on Islamabad’s sincerity to address New Delhi’s concerns.
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