Pakistan hopes for ‘constructive’ talks during Krishna’s visit
By IANSTuesday, June 8, 2010
ISTANBUL - Pakistan said Tuesday it hoped for a “constructive and result-oriented dialogue” when Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna travels to Islamabad July 15 as a follow-up to the meeting of the two prime ministers on the margins of the SAARC summit in late April.
“The prime ministers of Pakistan and India held a constructive meeting on the sidelines of 14th SAARC Summit held in Thimpu, Bhutan in late April. The two prime ministers agreed to resume the stalled dialogue process at the foreign ministers level,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said while addressing the third Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia here.
“On my invitation, Mr. S.M. Krishna, Minister for External Affairs of India, will be visiting Pakistan on July 15, 2010. I look forward to have constructive and result-oriented dialogue with him,” Qureshi added, according to Online news agency.
“We believe that as the two largest countries in South Asia, Pakistan and India must earnestly endeavour to resolve all outstanding disputes including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir to start a new era of trust, amity and friendship in the region,” he contended.
India has so far refrained from using the words “dialogue process” to refer to the talks, and said it is time to go beyond nomenclature and to address New Delhi’s trust deficit with Islamabad.
India had suspended the sub-continental composite dialogue process in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that New Delhi has blamed on Pakistani terrorists.
Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist captured during the assault and who has now been sentenced to death, has admitted to being a Pakistani national and to having been trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the mayhem, which claimed the lives of 166 people, including 26 foreigners.
Ahead of Krishna’s visit, Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram will be visiting Islamabad later this month for the SAARC home minister’s conference.
