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As foreign secretaries meet, India looking at talks in a positive, constructive manner | Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan - Nirupama
Rao and Salman Bashir - have begun their much anticipated meeting here, even as Indian officials have told ANI that New Delhi is 'looking at these talks in
a positive and constructive manner.' The renewed engagement between Islamabad
and New Delhi is being approached in a pragmatic manner, and officials of the
two countries are being both cautious and careful about not raising hopes of an
expected breakthrough almost 19 months after the 26/11terror attack on Mumbai.
Both sides have so far refused to confirm whether there will be a joint press
conference after the talks. Earlier this week, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama
Rao said New Delhi would be interacting with Pakistani officials in an exploratory
manner rather than an accusatory tone. Islamabad is viewing this as a positive
step for taking the bilateral talks process forward. The two sides are expected
to discuss the modalities and issues for the July 15 talks between the Foreign
Ministers of India and Pakistan - S.M. Krishna and Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Home Secretary G.K. Pillai arrived in
Islamabad yesterday by a special flight. The special aircraft landed at the Chaklala
Air Force base instead of the commercial Benazir Bhutto International Airport.
Apart from meeting Pakistan Foreign Secretary Bashir, Rao will also call on Pakistan
Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Meanwhile Indian Home Secretary
G.K. Pillai will meet his Pakistani counterpart Qamar Zaman Chaudhry and call
on Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The Director of the Intelligence Bureau,
Rajiv Mathur, is to meet with his Pakistani counterpart as part of the SAARC Home
Ministers' conference. The agenda of these meetings is still not clear, as the
nature of the talks is probably sensitive in nature. The conjecture is that some
sort of cooperation between Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and
India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) is on the agenda. Track-II channels
have been proposing this kind of an interaction, which could prove to be a first
step in intelligence cooperation between two nuclear rivals. But a formal relationship
between these two agencies is "still not on the cards" said a source. |
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