Pakistan’s response to India’s “wishlist” with regard to those behind 2008 Mumbai terror attacks is “critical” to “substantive movement” in the bilateral dialogue, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said Sunday.
What Islamabad has done so far about it is “not to our satisfaction”, he said while taking stock of the Indo-Pak ties in the year gone by.
Khurshid did not see controversial statements made by Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik while in India recently as a “setback” in the dialogue process.
What is said or what gesture is made is not “critical”, he said.
“I don’t see it as a setback at all. But I do believe and what we all believe in this country is that dialogue will move smoothly, faster and in a right direction provided the wishlist lying with Pakistan given by India as far as Mumbai tragedy is concerned is responded to. That is a critical thing, not what is said, not what gesture is made.
“Ultimately it is the delivery of the fundamental aspects that are required to be fulfilled.Unless that is done, we will not have substantive movement. And it has not been done to satisfaction,” the minister said.
Asked about delay in Pakistan granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, Khurshid said India will do whatever needs to be done to persuade them to move on this.
“We believe that it should have been done. We will do whatever needs to be done to persuade them that we should now be able to do it. It is not something which should be delayed indefinitely. It is not something we should just forget that it happened.
“We have to get them back on track. If they have problems, they will certainly express them to us and obviously when it was being negotiated, they must have factored in all the different pulls and pushes, but we would like it to be moved forward and we will certainly persuade them to do so,” the minister said, while asserting the issue “is always on the agenda”.
Khurshid also dismissed the assessment of some in India that Pakistan army was behind the delay in granting MFN status to India.
Pakistan has delayed the grant of MNF status to India along with abolition of a negative trade list regime “for a short time” because of reservations expressed by several industries, according to Pakistan Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
On India-China bilateral ties, the minister said China was important to the country as partners.
Go to hell
Go to hell
India has again started speaking the language of super power wanting Pakistan to do what it wants. It has not and will never reconcile to the existence of Pakistan. Spending tremendous amounts of budgetary fund on strengthening its navy, air and land forces, at the cost of development of poor Indians, is paying it no dividends. "Anti-Pakistan" slogans, on which Indian Congress had been cashing, are gradually thinning out and Indian people take chances to protest against it on flimsy events. Not only India and Pakistan, but the whole of South Asia, will rise as a regional power, when India and Pakistan seriously work over the sixty years old offer of joint defence as suggested by General Ayub Khan..
Imagination? Keep dreaming……………
What do you mean India again started…..?
India has constantly demanded action from Pakistan, It is only at Pakistan's repeated pleadings that besides 26/11 attcks otherthings also need to be discussed.
Do only superpowers have right to seek justice, while you blood thirsty Pakistanis kill innocents ????
It is about Pakistanis crossing international borders and showering bullets on innocents in Hotels, Railway Stations, Hospitals and community centres.
Is terrorism your birth right ? No matter what the security scenario in India, why should you send ppl to kill ?
You shameless people want to get away with those murders by beating about the bush, Internationally acclaimed terrorists are your heroes.
Do not worry about poor Indians, there is plenty in Pakistan.
Forget about working together to rise, first learn to work with each other within Pakistan. Look Karachi..how much mistrust is there, BTW which country in the world trusts you that you talk to rising together…
Go to hell
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