India, Pakistan to talk July 15, all issues on table (Roundup)

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NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD - Building upon the Thimphu talks between their two prime ministers, the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan announced Tuesday that they that will meet in Islamabad July 15 to discuss “all outstanding issues” in a bid to take forward the peace process.

India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi over the phone for nearly 30 minutes and discussed the course of the peace process in the months ahead.

“The foreign minister of Pakistan has invited me to go to Islamabad on the 15th of July,” Krishna told reporters in his South Block office in New Delhi after the telephone call. “So, I am planning to visit Islamabad for my talks with Foreign Minister Muhammad Qureshi. and I am looking forward to these talks.

“Let us hope that these talks will be helpful in bringing our two countries closer together, bringing the cordiality that all of us desire,” he said. “And let us hope that our effort will be fruitful.”

Krishna said the telephonic conversation was a follow-up of the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Thimphu April 29 when the two leaders mandated their foreign ministers to meet and work out modalities to restore trust between the two South Asian neighbours.

The two ministers “will work out the methodology as to how the dialogue between the two countries can be carried on so that all outstanding issues between our two countries could be discussed in an atmosphere of mutual trust and mutual respect”, he said.

Before the July 15 meeting, Home Minister P. Chidambaram will visit Islamabad June 26 for the meeting of SAARC home ministers and hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart to lay the groundwork for the foreign ministers-level talks, Qureshi said in Islamabad.

Qureshi said “all outstanding issues of mutual concern” will be discussed when the two foreign ministers meet in Islamabad July 15.

Qureshi stressed that it will be Pakistan’s effort to insulate the dialogue process from terror attacks. “We will not allow terrorism to impede the peace process,” Qureshi said, adding that both sides should try to make the peace process irreversible.

“We were both of the opinion that great responsibility has been given to us to carry forward the process, to bridge the trust deficit and create an enabling environment to carry forward the process,” Qureshi said.

“I think we’ve had a good discussion and we will build it from here… recognising the fact that it isn’t going to be easy, recognising the fact that there are no quick fixes,” Qureshi said, adding that he will visit New Delhi after the July 15 talks.

India suspended the composite dialogue with Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai carnage in which several Pakistani nationals were involved.

Qureshi and then foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee last met for structured bilateral talks, as part of the composite dialogue process, on the night of Nov 26, 2008, barely hours before 10 Pakistani terrorists unleashed mayhem in Mumbai, bringing bilateral ties to a standstill.

Since then, the two foreign ministers have met on the sidelines of various multilateral summits, including in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and New York.