New era of Indo-Pakistan relations: Khar

NEW DELHI: The joint statement issued after the bilateral India-Pakistan talks here on Wednesday echoed External Affairs Minister S M Krishna’s words, stating that India and Pakistan have agre
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna with his Pakistan counterpart Hina Khar
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna with his Pakistan counterpart Hina Khar
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NEW DELHI: The joint statement issued after the bilateral India-Pakistan talks here on Wednesday echoed External Affairs Minister S M Krishna’s words, stating that India and Pakistan have agreed to continue talks on Kashmir “in a purposeful and forward looking manner”.

Seeking to strike a positive note, Krishna said bilateral ties were “on the right track”.

“The outcomes have been as per our expectations…. We have some distance to travel, but with an open mind and a constructive approach, which has been demonstrated in this round of dialogue, I am sure we can reach our desired destination of having a friendly and cooperative relationship between the two countries,” he said.

In the same note, Khar said, “a new generation of India and Pakistan will see a relationship which is going to be much different than the one we experienced in the last few decades.” She added that there was a “new era” in relations between the two sides.

However, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao expressed New Delhi’s frustration over Khar’s meeting with Hurriyat leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq on Tuesday, before meeting the Indian establishment. “There are divergences and that divergence was illustrated by the meeting you refer too.

We have a very different point of view from Pakistan on that particular event and we have expressed our concerns in a frank and candid manner to the Pakistan side on this,” Rao said in reply to a question by a Pakistani journalist.

Not surprisingly, Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir tried to play it down.

“As far as the question of meeting with Hurriyat leadership, I would just like to succinctly state that in a democratic polity, it is our intention to reach out and we should not read more into it,” he said.

Bashir indicated that Khar had replied to Indian concerns on this meeting during the FM-level talks. “Our foreign minister said this matter of the meeting of yesterday cannot be construed in any way, including intentionally or by design, to cast a shadow on today’s talks.

It’s in other words to the contrary.

Reading more into it, is perhaps not warranted,” he said.

Wednesday’s meeting marked the end of the first round of the fresh dialogue between India and Pakistan, after a series of subject-specific meetings on issues ranging from water, Siachen and counter-terrorism in the last few months.

India had pushed the ‘pause’ button on the Comprehensive Dialogue Process begun with Pakistan in 2004, following the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The decision to restart talks was made at the meeting of the prime ministers of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the SAARC meeting in Thimpu last year.

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