India wants good relations with Pakistan, says S M Krishna

New Delhi, June 11 (ANI): India on Wednesday reiterated that it wanted "good neighbourly relations with Pakistan," provided Islamabad took steps to stem militant attacks targeting India.

"We have conveyed to the Government of Pakistan that the necessary conditions for the talks to be resumed have to be undertaken by the Government of Pakistan.

The most important one being that the terror attacks, which have been unleashed from the soil of Pakistan, directed against India has to be stopped. All instrumentalities of terrorism, which is aimed at India, which is emanating from Pakistani soil, will have to be dismantled," said External Affairs Minister S M Krishna.

"Perhaps then a favourable atmosphere would have been created for the dialogue to be resumed between Pakistan and India. We would like a stable Pakistan. We would like good neighbourly relations with Pakistan," he added.

Pakistan welcomed on Wednesday comments by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh that New Delhi would meet its neighbour "more than half way" if it cracked down on militants.

India put a pause on the slow-moving peace talks after tension sharply rose between the two countries following November attacks on Mumbai which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Referring to US Under Secretary of State William Burns' four-day visit to India, he said, "We exchanged with Burns our views on terror, our views on neighbourhood and our views on global issues. We have made known our points of view. We have tried to understand the points of view of United States of America. I conveyed to Burns that we are very eagerly looking forward to the proposed visit of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Burns had a detailed discussion on bilateral and regional issues, including the possibility of a resumption of a composite dialogue between India and Pakistan. (ANI)