India-Pakistan talks on July 15: Krishna (Second Lead)
By IANSTuesday, May 11, 2010
NEW DELHI - The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will meet in Islamabad July 15, it was announced here Tuesday after the two leaders spoke on the phone.
“The foreign minister of Pakistan has invited me to go to Islamabad on the 15th of July. So I am planning to visit Islamabad for my talks with Foreign Minister (Shah Mehmood) Qureshi, and I am looking forward to the talks,” India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters.
“Let us hope that these talks will be helpful in bringing our two countries closer together,” Krishna said after his phone conversation with Qureshi during which the two discussed steps to carry forward the stalled peace process between India and Pakistan.
He said that the talks would be marked with “cordiality” and would be “fruitful”.
According to the Indian minister, outstanding issues would be discussed and resolved by “mutual trust and mutual respect”.
The telephonic conversation lasted around half hour, informed sources said. The call was scheduled a few hours before Krishna leaves for Kazakhstan on a three-day visit later in the day.
The two foreign ministers were mandated by their prime ministers in Bhutan April 29 to meet and work out modalities for restoring trust between the two countries.
The two ministers were expected to talk Friday but could not do so as Qureshi was busy with other engagements.
Qureshi Monday had pitched for “uninterrupted dialogue” between the two countries.
“While the two countries had agreed to come back to the negotiating table to discuss all the issues, in order for the peace process to achieve concrete results, it was important that the dialogue between the two countries continued uninterruptedly,” Qureshi had said, according to a statement issued by Pakistan’s Foreign Office.
India suspended the composite dialogue with Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai carnage in which several Pakistani nationals were involved.
