Indo-Pak peace gets a chance as talks resume

Indian and Pakistani diplomats held key talks Thursday, meeting in Islamabad for the first time in more than two years to build on a recent thaw that could get peace negotiations back on track.

India's top foreign ministry civil servant, Nirupama Rao, and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir went into one-on-one talks and were then to meet with their teams to craft the agenda for a meeting of their ministers on July 15.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has invited his Indian counterpart SM Krishna to Islamabad as part of a process of reconciliation between two countries that have fought three wars in the past 60 years.

Relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals crashed to a new low after 10 gunmen went on the rampage in Mumbai, leaving 166 people dead after 60 hours of bloodshed in November 2008.

India and the United States blamed the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group based in Pakistan and linked to the Pakistani spy service.

New Delhi suspended a four-year peace process and demanded that Islamabad bring to justice the perpetrators of what is considered India's September 11.

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has charged seven suspects in connection with the Mumbai attacks, including alleged mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and alleged LeT operative Zarar Shah, but Pakistan has said it needs more evidence.

Rao said India would stress the need for "credible action" from Pakistan over evidence that had been provided to Islamabad on the Mumbai attacks.

"We have underlined the need for Pakistan to take this evidence seriously, to take it on board and to take substantive action in response to what we have conveyed to them," she told reporters this week.

"Obviously, this issue will form a part of our discussions with the Pakistan government during the forthcoming visit."

The recent thaw in South Asia comes with the United States determined to promote regional stability at a critical juncture of the war in Afghanistan, with Pakistan's own fight against the Taliban seen as critical.

The Indian and Pakistani prime ministers met in April on the sidelines of a regional summit in Bhutan, which set in motion a process to revive suspended contacts at various levels of government.

A senior Pakistani foreign ministry official said the one-on-one talks between Bashir and Rao had got underway shortly after 11:00 am (0600 GMT), in the first meeting in Islamabad between the foreign secretaries since May 2008.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said issues such as peace, security and confidence-building would be up for discussion Thursday.

"Pakistan looks forward to a sustained, meaningful and uninterrupted engagement with India to discuss and resolve all outstanding issues," spokesman Abdul Basit said.

The foreign ministers' talks on July 15 will be the third major contact between the two countries in six months.

Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram is due to arrive in Islamabad for a meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on Thursday.

He is expected to meet Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

An editorial in Indian newspaper Mail Today looked forward to ministerial contacts in the coming weeks.

"A positive outcome of the home minister's visit could set the stage for a successful visit by S.M. Krishna, which could lead to a fully-fledged resumption of the Indo-Pak dialogue process," it said.

But some analysts warned that the best outcome of Thursday's talks would merely be more talks and not a resumption of the peace process.

"I don't expect much from these talks unless India is prepared to talk about issues other than terrorism," Pakistani analyst Hasan Askari said.

"Therefore the talks may not produce anything significant which means resumption of comprehensive talks between India and Pakistan," he said.

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