- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:25 05:43 12:19 15:46 18:50 20:09
Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, left, walks with Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi Shahid Malik upon his arrival at Chaklala airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Pakistan and Indian Foreign Ministers will meet Thursday for talks, as the nuclear-armed rivals try to resume a formal peace dialogue derailed by the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (AP)
Pakistani and Indian foreign ministers will meet on Thursday in an effort to revive peace talks broken off after the Mumbai assault, although no one is expecting any breakthrough given lingering distrust between the old rivals.
Shortly after his arrival on Wednesday in Islamabad, Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna said he would press Pakistan on progress of the probe into the 2008 attacks on the Indian financial hub that killed 166 people.
Krishna's statement followed comments by Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai published in the Indian Express newspaper accusing Pakistan's main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of orchestrating the Mumbai assault.
The remarks by Indian officials reflected continuing mistrust between the two nuclear-armed uneasy neighbours which have fought three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947.
However, both sides have been under pressure from the United States to reduce tensions because their rivalry is often played out in Afghanistan and complicates efforts to bring peace there.
The talks between Krishna and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi could see them framing a new format to replace a broad 2004 peace process, known as the composite dialogue, which India suspended after the Mumbai attacks.
That new format could free up the peace process from a political bind: India could not be seen as reviving the old peace process until Pakistan punished the planners of the Mumbai attack.
"We hope that as a result of these talks our two countries agree on an engagement process that should move forward in a sustained manner and it should be uninterruptable," Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said before the start of the dialogue.
"Unless we talk to each other and we discuss all issues which have been hindering normalisation of relations for decades ... we believe there cannot be a cooperative engagement. We are looking at these talks very positively."
Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.