NUCLEAR RIVALS India and Pakistan yesterday said they would resume wide-ranging peace talks that were terminated after the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, which New Delhi claims were backed by Islamabad. More than 166 people died in the strikes by 10 gunmen who besieged Mumbai for almost three days.
In simultaneous statements issued in New Delhi and Islamabad, the neighbours and long-time rivals said they had agreed to resume dialogue on all issues, including counterterrorism; peace; security and humanitarian matters; the disputed Kashmir region; and other unresolved territorial issues.
They also announced that Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would visit India by July to review progress in the dialogue process.
The decision to resume talks was taken at a meeting between Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on the sidelines of a regional South Asian summit in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu at the weekend.
Prior to the meeting of foreign ministers later in the year, secretary-level talks will take place on varied issues including progress on the trial in Pakistan of seven men charged with masterminding the Mumbai attacks.
“We have to pick up the threads again,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said. This is still a step-by-step approach which is necessary to narrow the trust deficit between us.” Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani too welcomed the talks and praised his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh for “opening a new chapter in the relations between the two countries”, claiming it was one which Pakistan fully reciprocates.
Since independence from colonial rule in 1947 India and Pakistan have been to war three times and fought an 11-week-long border skirmish in 1999 that threatened to escalate into a nuclear exchange.
Two of the three wars and the 1999 military engagement were over Kashmir, which is divided between the two sides but claimed in its entirety by both.
The announcement of talks was welcomed by the United States. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that President Barack Obama, who visited India late last year, had encouraged the two sides to talk to each other once again and restart their peace efforts. The US hopes that reduced tension between the two would free the Pakistani army to focus on its fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants on the border with Afghanistan.
The neighbours launched a composite peace dialogue in 2004 on all contentious and outstanding bilateral issues which continued until the rupture caused by the Mumbai attacks.
Relations deteriorated further after India accused Pakistani intelligence of being closely involved in planning the Mumbai attacks and insisted it would not return to the negotiating table until Islamabad cracked down on Lashkar-i-Taiba, (Army of the Pure), the Islamist militant group blamed for executing the strike.