Leaders welcome India-Pak Secretary-level meet

Former President of Pakistan Mushraf said on NDTV that he look forward with anxiety that two neighbours peace talks reach logical conclusions. With more than a year hiatus, Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan met in New Delhi on Thursday structure the fractured talks with an aim of vent out the heatl in the relations caused by Mumbai attacks.

(live-PR.com) - "With respect to India and Pakistan, we've encouraged the resumption of the direct talks which were suspended when Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf left office," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Senate panel on Wednesday. The Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, had termed it as a significant breakthrough."We welcome very much the fact that


these talks are taking place. I think this is a significant breakthrough, and I really want to commend both the Indians and the Pakistanis for arranging these talks," Robert Blake said in an interview to the BBC.

Speaking to CNN-IBN:Pervez Musharraf: I would like to put forward my hope, my hope being we reach peace, we reach an accord on Kashmir, that is my hope. Now what I expect, I wouldn't like to comment on that, I wish leadership on both sides best of luck in trying to achieve peace.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao heads Indian delegation,her counterpart the Pakistani delegation led by Salman Bashir begin their talks at Hyderbad House.Pre meet remarks Rao, "I welcome Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Salman Bashir...I look forward to our talks". Bashir said, "It is a pleasure for me to be back here.We are also looking forward to a very good, constructive engagement".

India to raise concerns over continued terrorism emanating from Pakistan and press it to end this scourge which was hampering normalisation of ties. Rao is expected to refer to the recent anti-India rally held by Jamat-ud-Dawa in Lahore where its chief Hafiz Saeed made provocative speeches inciting Pakistanis to intensify attack against the country.
India is also likely to seek the progress report from Pakistan on the investigation and prosecution into the Mumbai attacks.Rao is to seek voice samples of seven arrested LeT operatives in connection with Mumbai attacks to be provided to India to match them with telephonic intercepts recorded by the security agencies here.

Pakistani side was expected to raise Kashmir and water issue.India has made it clear that terrorism is the focus of these talks although it was ready to discuss any issue that could yield to peace and security between the two countries.India has played down any great expectations from these talks and cited the "trust deficit".

New Delhi has emphasised that the Foreign Secretary-level talks did not mean resumption of composite dialogue which was put on hold by India after the 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by ten Pakistani nationals.After 26/11, Foreign Secretaries of the two countries have been meeting on the sidelines of various multi-lateral events. The last formal meeting between the Foreign Secretaries was held in May 2008.Refusing to pre-judge the outcome of the talks, India, says the future of the relations could be determined by the way Pakistan acts on India's concerns.

Arriving on Wednesday, Bashir said, "I have come here to bridge the differences. I am hopeful of a positive outcome."Bashir is also scheduled to call on External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon.Prior to Mumbai attacks, the composite dialogue which was launched in 2004 had made considerable progress during the four rounds.Under the composite dialogue, eight issues including Jammu and Kashmir, Confidence Building Measures, Siachen and Sir Creek were discussed.