Terming dialogue as the only way forward
Nisar Ahmed Thokar
Islamabad, July 15: As a part of effort to bridge trust-deficit between India and Pakistan the foreign ministers of the two countries held talks here on Monday wherein the two sides decided to continue dialogue to move forward.
Accompanied by senior officials both the leaders discussed in detail the issues that have been bedeviling bilateral relations of India and Pakistan for last several years.
Latter addressing the joint press conference Indian FM S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart termed the talks as a positive development. They were of the view that the talks have enabled them to develop better understanding. Speaking on the occasion Qureshi said, “Pakistan has always wanted friendly, cordial and good neighborly relations with India”, he said that both the sides have made a substantive progress on a number of issues. He maintained that the leadership of the two countries have admitted the fact that dialogue was the only way forward “as the most preferred way forward”.
He said, “We were given the task to discuss ways and means to restore confidence and to bridge the trust deficit”. However he maintained that while remaining disengaged “we can’t achieve this objective”. He said that to move forward it was imperative address the issues of mutual concern. He pointed out that the terrorism was an issue of mutual concerns as both the countries were victim of terror. He maintained that to root out this menace there was a dire need to adopt a common approach.
“I conveyed the FM (Krishana) the change in mood within Pakistan and the steps Pakistan has undertaken to deal this menace”, he said. He however maintained that the resolution of outstanding issues was important. “there are issues which are of significance to India and of course there issues which are of core significance for Pakistan that need to be addressed and we have to agreed to discuss them to move forward”.
“We have discussed all issues whether it is terrorism, the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and the recent developments in Jammu and Kashmir, the Siachen and Sircreek issue”, Qureshi said adding that all these issues were discussed in a very candid manner.
“We made progress on certain Kashmir related CBMS, including cross LOC trade people to people contacts we discussed how useful they have been and how we can build on what we have achieved in the past few years”, he said. Terming the discussions as fruitful he said, “We will continue to meet in future”.
Krishna while thanking Qureshi for his sentiments said that the two countries have been striving for a long time to achieve this goal. “At times we have succeeded at times we have not been able to make progress that we have been expecting”.
About his meetings with Pakistani leadership he said that there have been frank and cordial exchange of views on all issues concerning the two countries. “We revive the current state of bilateral relations and discuss steps to promote trust and confidence”. He said, “I think talks have enabled us to develop better understanding”. He said that India is committed to be a sincere partner in our efforts to establish meaningful cooperative relations between our two countries.”
He said, “India wants a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Pakistan.” He said that India was hopeful that Pakistan would take stringent action against the perpetrators of Mumbai Attack. He said that Qureshi has assured him that Pakistan would take the necessary action in this regard.
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