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Pakistani and Indian foreign ministry officials opened talks
today to push forward the rival neighbours' peace process,
officials said.
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar is meeting with his Indian
counterpart Shashank, who goes by one name, on the sidelines of a
regional South Asian conference, foreign ministry spokesperson
Masood Khan said.
They will discuss ways to "coordinate and orchestrate" a dialogue
process, he said.
The two foreign secretaries last met in New Delhi in June for the
first talks between the nuclear armed rivals in three years on the
festering dispute over the divided Himalayan territory of
Kashmir.
Amid a thaw in tensions, the two sides have agreed to strive for a
final settlement to the 56-year-old dispute and to reopen
consulates in Karachi and Bombay closed in 1994.
In a joint statement after June 27-28 talks both sides pledged to
"continue the sustained and serious dialogue to find a peaceful,
negotiated final settlement" on Kashmir, the cause of two of their
three wars since independence in 1947.
They also agreed to restore staff strength at their embassies in
New Delhi and Islamabad to 110, the level before a near war in
2002; to formalise an agreement to notify each other of missile
tests and to release all fishermen and other civilians who strayed
into each other's territory.
The peace process was kickstarted in April 2003 by India's then
prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the new left-leaning
government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has vowed to continue
to seek peace with Pakistan.
Pakistan is hosting a two-day meeting of South Asian foreign
ministers aimed at boosting trade and commercial cooperation in the
region.
The July 20-21 meeting is to be attended by Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, grouped under
the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
India's Foreign Minister Natwar Singh is due to arrive today for
the meeting and is expected to meet Pakistani counterpart Khurshid
Mahmud Kasuri, officials said. – Sapa-AFP.
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