New Delhi - The first official talks between
India and Pakistan since the Mumbai attacks were described as an initial step toward restoring trust - but the time was "not ripe" to resume the bilateral peace process, India's top diplomat said Thursday. Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in New Delhi for discussions she described as "useful and candid."
"We certainly do not discount the achievements and relevance of the composite dialogue (commonly known as the peace process)... but the time is not ripe as yet to resume it because we have to create a climate of trust and confidence," she said.
Thursday's talks were the first formal dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbours after India halted the four-year-old
peace process following the November 2008 carnage by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militants which left 166 people dead.
"We have set out to take a first step towards rebuilding trust and I believe that my meeting with the Pakistan foreign secretary has constituted that first step. We have agreed to remain in touch and continue our endeavour to restore trust," Rao said.
Rao did not mention the dates for the next meeting, but added that she had been invited to Pakistan by Bashir to continue their talks.
Delhi meanwhile stuck to its demand that Pakistan must bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to
justice for the peace dialogue to resume.
"While acknowledging the steps taken by Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai terror attack to book, I pointed out that these did not go far enough to unravel the full conspiracy behind the Mumbai attack and to award exemplary punishment to the culprits," Rao said.
Rao said Delhi had handed over three dossiers and asked Pakistan end terrorism directed against it by dismantling anti-India terrorist networks on its soil.
The dossiers containing evidence and information on militants involved with Mumbai attacks, an Islamist militant, Ilyas Kashmiri who has threatened to target sport events in India and a list of fugitives hiding in Pakistan.
But the neighbours' sharply differing agendas for the talks were clear at the press conference addressed by Bashir later Thursday.
While terrorism was India's focus for the discussions, Bashir told reporters that the
Kashmir dispute was the "core issue" that was discussed extensively at the meeting.
The scenic Himalayan region has remained at the root of tensions between India and Pakistan which have fought two wars since their independence from British rule in 1947.
Both countries administer portions of the region, but claim it in its entirety.
Besides Kashmir, the Pakistani side also raised allegations of the alleged complicity of India in the insurgency in its Balochistan province.
Bashir also made a strong pitch for resumption of the composite dialogue saying Pakistan had done everything to proceed against the militants behind the Mumbai attack.
He added it was "unfair and counterproductive" to allow the issue of terrorism stall the process of improving relations between the countries.
Bashir was blunt, saying Delhi should refrain from lecturing Pakistan on countering terrorism.
He said his country's "number one priority is to deal with terrorism". "We have suffered hundreds of Mumbais. This is something that has come to us from across the border (with Afghanistan)," he said.
The Pakistani delegation also met India's National Security Advisor, Shivshankar Menon and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna before heading back to Islamabad.
Analysts said the talks were partly in response from pressure from US and Britain which are encouraging better India-Pakistan relations for the sake of their operations in Afghanistan.
An easing of tensions between the two countries would allow Pakistan to divert troops from its disputed eastern border with India to its western regions, they said.
