The Indo-Pak talks 2011

[hembo]

Please post all matters related to ongoing and ensuing Indo-Pak talks here. Mods may please make this sticky for the time being. Thanks.

 

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Important Indo-Pak talks later this month

Defence and commerce secretaries to talk with days of each other

Iftikhar Gilani
New Delhi



India and Pakistan have a packed calendar of official engagements over the next two months.

As the defence secretaries revive talks on Siachen and Sir Creek on 22 April, the commerce secretaries of both countries are also meeting in Islamabad on 27-28 April.

The meetings come on the heels of talks between the home secretaries of the two countries here in March, followed by an informal meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of India-Pakistan cricket World Cup semi-final match in Mohali.

“By the end of April the commerce secretaries will meet in Islamabad,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Formal and structured talks between the two countries were suspended after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

The commerce secretaries would try to iron out outstanding issues affecting bilateral trade and the talks are expected to give boost to trade across the borders.

Official sources suggest that there was considerable progress on Siachen and Sir Creek in 2008 when the Mumbai attacks punctured the peace process.

An agreement on Sir Creek, a strip of water between Gujarat (Kutch region) and the Pakistani province of Sindh (Thatta region), had become possible after a joint survey by hydrographers of both countries in January 2007.

The hydrographers exchanged their maps in March 2008, with both sides agreeing to draw a line in the middle of the creek.

On Siachen, India had agreed to demilitarise the icy battlefield, provided Pakistan agrees to ‘authenticate’ the relative troop positions along the 110-km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL), the undelineated stretch between the last marked grid reference point NJ-9842 on the Line of Control and the Karakoram Pass.

Iftikhar Gilani is a Special Correspondent with Tehelka.com.
iftikhar@tehelka.com

 

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Pak consults India on regional issues
South Asian News Agency (SANA) ⋅ April 6, 2011

ISLAMABAD: In an apparent softening of its attitude against India, Pakistan has withdrawn its opposition to New Delhi’s participation in a preparatory conclave on the security and reconstruction of Afghanistan to be held in Ankara next month, a media report today said.

“Senior officials within the administration have advised the foreign ministry not to oppose India’s participation in the conference,” an official source was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune newspaper.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry had earlier told Turkey that Islamabad would not attend the conference if India was invited.

“Our civilian establishment is gradually digesting the idea of consulting India on regional issues,” a high—ranking source told the daily.

The Ankara conclave will chalk out a plan for the International Conference of Foreign Ministers on Afghanistan scheduled to be held in Bonn in December.

More than 1,000 delegates from 90 countries, including Pakistan and India, have been invited to the conference.

Among those who will attend are Afghan President Hamid Karzai, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the UN Secretary General.

Foreign policy experts confirmed this change in the government’s policy towards India.

“There is a visible change in Pakistan’s attitude towards India on regional issues,” said Simbal Khan, director for Afghanistan and Central Asia at the Institute of Strategic Studies.

“Our attitude is softening. If we can talk to India on other issues with a regional approach, there should be no harm in talking to it on the Afghan issue.

“We should keep in mind that India is the fifth largest donor to Afghanistan,” she said.

The conference will focus on three key areas: transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government by 2014, further international commitment to Afghanistan after the handover to Afghans, and the political process, including national reconciliation and integration of the Taliban.

Pakistan has often accused India of using Afghanistan as a base for “destabilising” its border regions, especially Balochistan province and the tribal belt.

However, Khan said: “Karzai had addressed Pakistan’s concerns over India’s role in Afghanistan. He removed top officials of the Afghan spy agency who were considered to be close to India.”

 

[Trichy]

This talk brings nothing. Just waste of TAX PAYERS MONEY.

 

[ameer219]

For me, the talks are important, as it helps to rebuild the trust bridge between these two countries, even if it doesn't end up in a conclusion. Ending takes time as we need to regain the trust we have lost. We have to take a step somewhere guys, and if this is where we have to start, so be it.

 

[Prometheus]

talks with Pakistan..............errrrr what possibly pakistan can offer?

we tried by means of talks with pakistan.................and we failed evrytime.
time to rethink our policy

 

[hembo]

As long as the talks does not abruptly ends like all the previous attempts, it is a welcome step IMHO. I'm pinning my hope more on the commerce secratary level talks. If economic cooperation grows, both the countries will be bound to try solve the other disputes in the future. Albeit slowly. People to people contact and more economic cooperation is the path forward in bilateral relationships in todays world. We cannot be bound anymore by the 60+ years of hatred. For me the talks are necessary and very well timed step.

P.S.: I'm intentionally avoiding why the talks failed before, because I don't want to drag the thread down the same old flame line most of the threads go. So people who wants to discuss why talks had failed in the past may please create a separate thread to discuss it.