India on Friday said the composite dialogue with Pakistan would be resumed after the new government settled down and pending confidence building measures between the two countries were implemented.
“It is not good that we say everything right at the outset. The atmosphere is good at the moment. Let it improve further to be conducive for talks,” External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters.
“Let them (the new government in Pakistan) settle down and understand their job, then we can resume it. However, there are some issues on which both the government and people expect some progress, and we will get some satisfaction from it. Then things can move on smoothly from there,” he said.
“The focus of the government, at present, is to resume sectoral dialogue, whereby progress can be made on certain issues,” Khurshid said after addressing Congress workers at the PCC office.
“Our formulation at the moment is to start a sectoral dialogue. The issues on which we can make forward movement, we will do that. There are some issues on which expecting some quick progress is not possible,” he said.
The external affairs minister said there were some confidence building measures that were to be implemented by both countries to further improve the atmosphere.
“There are confidence building measures like the most favoured nation status (to India) which they had decided earlier, but has not been implemented yet and the new visa regime which we have announced and will enable travel of more people across the border is to be implemented. We can move forward one step at a time,” he said.
Zardari:
On the other hand, President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan desired friendly‚ cooperative and good neighbourly relations with India.
Talking to Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal who paid a farewell call on the president on Friday, Zardari appreciated the efforts of the outgoing Indian high commissioner for improving Pak-Indian relations during his four-year tenure in Pakistan.
He said there existed tremendous opportunities between the two countries to boost their cooperation for the mutual benefit of the two peoples.
Sharat Sabharwal thanked the president for the support extended to him by the government of Pakistan during his tenure as the high commissioner.