Talking to media here Krishna said, the meeting last night was in keeping with the understanding reached with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmoood Qureshi in Islamabad. Mr. Krishna said, the aim of all these meetings was only to build bridges of trust and mutual confidence.
The Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has said that the two sides have been able to make efforts to a considerable extent in bridging the trust deficit. Speaking to reporters, he said, there has been forward movement on the things agreed to by the Prime Ministers of the two countries in Thimpu in April last year.
These included efforts to bridge the trust deficit, have frequent contacts and that everything should be discussed. He said that the two countries are pursuing that format. While strongly condemning terrorism, Mr. Bashir said that that the two sides have agreed to cooperate to deal with this menace. He said that there is belief that there is a large area of convergence in this regard and the need to work where ever there are divergences.
earlier report
THIMPU: (AMN) India and Pakistan have agreed on restart a constructive dialogue between the two countries to resolve all outstanding issues. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir held extensive talks here to prepare modalities to go ahead with dialogue process.
The two Foreign Secretaries will brief their respective governments on their discussions. “Two sides affirmed the need to carry forward the dialogue process” said external affairs ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash after the meeting.
He said that the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries had useful and frank discussions on the steps required to be taken in this context. They agreed on the need for a constructive dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues.
It was after a gap of over six months that two foreign secretaries met here at hotel Taj Tashi Sunday night. Although no details were given on the specific issues discussed at the meeting yet sources says they discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral importance and specially the steps that can be taken to facilitate a possible resumption of the dialogue process.
The Indian government sources say there was good progress made on charting the way forward. India made it very clear that it is willing to discuss all issues but was not in favour of being bound by timelines. However both side looked keen to revive the stalled dialogue process.