RSS
India extended an offer to Pakistan yesterday to revive senior-level peace discussions -- suggesting a notable thaw in relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals more than a year after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 14).
New Delhi accused extremists operating in Pakistan of being behind the terrorist strikes that killed more than 160 people and has questioned Islamabad's commitment to rooting out militants operating in the country.
Anger over the Mumbai attacks led India to put the breaks on a peace process begun in 2004 with its South Asian rival. The two countries have already gone to war three times. While Islamabad has sought a revival of the peace process for some time, Pakistani officials did not immediately agree to yesterday's proposal (see GSN, July 17, 2009).
India's offer was "a positive step," said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. He said the peace process should begin again at the point where talks left off after the Mumbai attacks.
New Delhi's interest in resuming talks at that position is not known. The peace process encompasses many issues and has been viewed as pathway for formal normalization of ties between the two countries (Associated Press/Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5).
"They have proposed foreign secretary-level talks and we have sought clarification on the contents of the proposed talks," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told Agence France-Presse. "We are awaiting response from India."
Official sources told the Press Trust of India that New Delhi plans to bring up the issue of terrorism and any additional topics that could "contribute to creating [an] atmosphere of peace and security" between the two nations (Agence France-Presse/ABC News, Feb. 5).