Islamabad, June 24 (IANS) Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Thursday described the Pakistan-India foreign sceretary-level talks here as ‘a step forward’ in resuming the sub-continental peace process and stressed that the two sides should build on this development.
‘I think dialogue is a step forward. It’s an important development,’ Qureshi said after Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao concluded their talks here.
‘We should build on this development,’ Qureshi said.
Rao and Bashir held wide-ranging talks to firm up the agenda for the meeting between Qureshi and his Indian countepart S.M. Krishna in Islamabad July 15. They also addressed a joint press conference, the first since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that India has blamed on Pakistani terrorists.
India had suspended the composite dialogue process in the wake of the Nov 26-29, 2008 carnage that claimed the lives of 166 people, including 26 foreigners.
Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram is due to visit Islamabad on Saturday for a meeting of the SAARC home ministers.
