India, Pakistan to Begin Official Talks
India and Pakistan have agreed to begin talks on "all outstanding" bilateral issues, officials said Thursday, signaling a possible resumption of their suspended peace dialogue.
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said officials from both sides would meet "in the coming weeks and months" to carry out "the necessary spadework" that would culminate in a meeting of the two rivals' foreign ministers -- possibly in June or July.
"We have to pick up the threads again," Prakash told Agence France Presse, adding that "all outstanding issues" would be up for discussion.
However, he declined to confirm whether this meant a resumption of the full-fledged peace process -- known as the "composite dialogue" -- that was suspended in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which claimed 166 lives.
"This is still a step-by-step approach which is necessary to narrow the trust deficit," he said.
"We are trying to work out a way to take the process forward," he added.
The NDTV news channel, citing unidentified government sources, had reported earlier that an agreement had been reached to resume the formal pre-2008 dialogue.
The decision to move the talks process along was taken at a meeting between Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu on Sunday.
Source: Agence France Presse
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