Indo-Pak Foreign Sec-level talks on Nov 13-14

New Delhi, Oct 17: Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan will be held on November 13 and 14 in New Delhi, marking the resumption of the composite dialogue between the two countries that was stalled after the July 11 serial blasts in Mumbai which had claimed more than 180 lives.

Confirming the dates of the meeting, senior officials said here today that India would soon thereafter hand over evidence to Islamabad about Pakistan's alleged involvement in the blasts.

Pakistan has rejected the Indian charges.

Mr Shiv Shankar Menon, who took over as Foreign Secretary on October 1, will lead the Indian delegation to the talks while the Pakistani team will be headed by his counterpart Riaz Mohammed Khan.

The decision to resume the stalled peace process was taken at the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Havana on September 16 on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the two leaders had agreed that the peace process must be maintained and its success was important for both countries and the future of the entire region. They directed their Foreign Secretaries, in this context, to resume the composite dialogue at the earliest possible.

Meeting as they did in the aftermath of the Mumbai blasts, the two leaders had also strongly condemned all acts of terrorism and agreed that the scourge needed to be effectively dealt with. They had decided to put in place an India-Pakistan anti-terrorism institutional mechanism to identify and implement counter-terrorism initiatives and investigations.

The composite dialogue between the two countries covers eight outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir, peace and confidence building measures, Siachen, Cir Creek and trade and economic relations.

The officials said the meeting would discuss, among other things, details of the anti-terrorism institutional mechanism.

According to them, India would prefer the mechanism to consist of two or three officials on either side. They could include a foreign service officer with expertise on terrorism and security experts. Details such as the seniority level of the officials concerned would be discussed at the meeting, they said.

India is keen on the mechanism being put in place at the earliest so that there is a public forum at which the government can present evidence to Pakistan about its involvement in terrorist attacks in India and seek details of people believed to be behind such incidents.

In the past, too, India routinely presented such evidence to Pakistan at various fora but Pakistan would deny any such involvement. India is hoping that the new mechanism would commit Pakistan to properly investigate all such claims by India and live up to its promise of jointly fighting the scourge.

Dr Singh and Gen Musharraf, at their meeting, also directed the Foreign Secretaries to arrange consultations for an early solution of the Siachen issue.

They said experts should meet immediately to agree on coordinates for joint survey of Sir Creek and adjoining area, without prejudice to each other's position on the issue. The survey should commence in November this year and experts should start discussions on the maritime boundary, they said.

The leaders said the two sides would facilitate implementation of agreements and understandings already reached on LOC-related confidence-building measures (CBMs), including bus services, crossing points and truck service.

Following the Mumbai blasts, the Foreign Secretary-level talks between the two countries, scheduled for July 23-24, were postponed indefinitely, with India making it clear to Islamabad that the dialogue process could move forward only if it stopped supporting cross-border terrorism.

India has repeatedly said that there could be no progress in the peace process unless it was satisfied that Pakistan was taking firm steps to curb cross-border terrorism and infiltration.

UNI

Related Stories

In Focus: 7/11 Mumbai bomb blast