ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Monday expressed its desire to have cordial and cooperative ties with India, a day after the two sides agreed to have constructive engagement aimed at restoring the stalled dialogue process. The sentiment was expressed by Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir when he called on India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna in Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan.
“The Pakistan foreign secretary underlined the desire of Pakistan to have cordial and cooperative ties with India,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told reporters while briefing on the 30-minute meeting. Bashir also expressed satisfaction over his discussions with Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao last night. He thanked Krishna for “guiding the process of bilateral engagement and taking the dialogue process further,” Prakash said.
Krishna said the meeting between the Indo-Pak foreign secretaries had laid a ”solid foundation” for sustained engagement aimed at building ”bridges of trust and mutual confidence”. He said the meeting was part of a process of engagement which was being taken forward as per direction of Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Raza Gilani. Asked whether progress had been made at the meeting, Krishna said, “The very fact that the two foreign secretaries met is certainly an indication that solid foundation has been laid for getting the two countries on the sustained engagement.”
Meanwhile, Nirupama Rao told reporters India is “cautiously optimistic” on charting a way forward in the dialogue process with Pakistan and would like to see the process maturing. Rao said she and Salman Bashir had a good and useful meeting and they were able to discuss a number of issues of relevance with the Indian-Pakistan relations.
he said her discussions with Bashir “were not dominated by any one issue”, apparently in reference to the dispute over the 2008 Mumbai attacks. “We talked about the (dialogue) process and charting the way forward, what the best modalities would be,” she said, adding that both sides adopted an open and “constructive attitude.”
