New Delhi
11 May 2010
External affairs minister SM Krishna will visit Islamabad on July 15 for talks
with his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi to discuss confidence- and trust-
building measures.
The date and venue of the talks was firmed up Tuesday in a telephone conversation
between the two ministers, who last met here on 26 November 2008, hours before
terrorists from Pakistan unleashed mayhem in Mumbai, killing about 200 people.
Since then, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan have never visited each other's
country, making do with meetings on the sidelines of multilateral summits.
The Krishna-Qureshi meeting would be preceded by Home minister P Chidambaram's
visit to Islamabad on June 26 for the much-delayed meeting of the home ministers of
Saarc countries.
Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao will get an opportunity to exchange notes with her
Pakistan counterpart Salman Bashir on the sidelines of the Saarc home ministers'
meeting.
Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani, who met in Bhutan in April,
had mandated their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries to discuss a roadmap for
carrying forward the dialogue, interrupted after the 26 November 2008 terrorist attacks in
Mumbai.
Speaking to journalists here, Mr Krishna said: "I am looking forward to these talks and
let us hope that these talks will help in bringing our countries closer together and
bringing between the two countries the cordiality we desire and let us hope that our
efforts will be fruitful[.]"
In Islamabad, Mr Qureshi told media that India and Pakistan were going into the talks
with an open mind.
"I will not create any false hopes. I am an optimist yet a realist. I recognise the
challenges, I recognise the difficulties. I recognise the trust deficit. It is an uphill task[.]
Don't expect miracles overnight. Good thing is that on both sides we have democracies
and democracies believe in negotiations, talks and parleys[.] There is no quick fixes,"
Mr Qureshi said.
The Pakistan foreign minister was careful to avoid any suggestion of a resumption of the
stalled composite dialogue, which, New Delhi has studiously maintained, would have to
wait till after Islamabad has brought the 26/11 terrorists to justice.
"We will discuss all issues of concern to India and Pakistan. There was no discussion
on structure. I am presuming both sides are comfortable. Structure is in place," Mr
Qureshi said.
For its part, New Delhi has said India and Pakistan should move beyond nomenclature to
chart a way forward in their bilateral ties, in a manner that allows to bridge the trust
deficit that has impeded peace.
Mr Qureshi also said it would be Pakistan's effort to insulate dialogue process terror
attacks. "We will have to sit and resolve. We will not allow acts of terrorism to impede
the process. We will have to build on it to a level that it (dialogue process) becomes
irreversible," he noted.
The conviction of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab by a special court in Mumbai, which
sentenced him to death for the Mumbai terror attacks, has made the Indian agencies
hopeful of asking Pakistan to speed up the trial of the 20 other conspirators facing trial in
Pakistan.
Government sources here said India will emphasise the role of the Pakistan-based
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) operatives in terrorist activities. The list of 20 most wanted
individuals sought by India includes Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Sayeed and LeT
commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, besides Abu Hamza, Abu Kaahfa, Zarar Shah, Abu
Al Kama and a retired major general of the Pakistani army who was present during the
training of the 10 terrorists who stormed Mumbai.
Government sources also said that India would ask Pakistan to reign in Saeed and
extradite Lakhvi here after a copy of the judgment convicting Kasab was sent to
Islamabad, though it was not clear when it would do so. Issues pertaining to movement
of terrorists from across the border, training camps run by Pakistan-based terror outfits,
and infiltration attempts by militants on the Indo-Pak border, are some of the concerns
which India was expected to raise in the talks, sources added.
In the foreign secretary-level talks held here on February 25, India had given three
dossiers to Pakistan. In the first dossier, India had demanded that besides Saeed and
Lakhvi, LeT operatives Muzzamil, Abu Hamza, Abu Khafa and Usman be handed over to
it.
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