AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
DHAKA: Pakistan's foreign minister said Wednesday that Islamabad has a “very positive attitude” toward a resumption of peace talks with nuclear rival India.
Speaking after the close of a South Asian foreign ministers' meeting in Dhaka, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said foreign secretary-level peace talks between India and Pakistan held on the sidelines were “positive.”
“Under the circumstances — i.e after the postponement of the foreign secretaries' meeting under the composite dialogue — yes it was a good meeting (Monday) between the two foreign secretaries,” he told reporters.
The top foreign ministry bureaucrats of both countries reaffirmed their commitment to the peace process after holding talks ahead of the two-day meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
The two sides still have not set any dates for resumption of formal talks with Pakistan saying it was up to India to state when it wanted to them to resume.
But “as far as Pakistan is concerned, we have a very positive attitude (to the talks),” Kasuri said.
The neighbours embarked on a slow-moving composite peace dialogue in 2004 after coming to the brink of a fourth war two years earlier.
However, India postponed formal foreign secretary-level talks last month following serial train blasts in Mumbai that killed 183 people, saying Pakistani “elements” were involved.
Pakistan has demanded proof of India's allegations and offered to help in the investigation into the blasts.
“We are also interested to find out who the real culprits (of the Mumbai blasts) are,” said Kasuri.
New Delhi has frequently accused Pakistan of fomenting violence against Indian targets — charges that Islamabad denies.
In their peace talks, the two sides have made progress in establishing increased trade and people-to-people contacts but made no headway on the crucial issue of Kashmir, the trigger of two of the three wars they have fought.
Both sides hold Kashmir in part but claim it in full. A deadly separatist Islamic insurgency has been under way in the Indian zone since 1989.
