Pak-India Foreign Secretaries Meeting Today

Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 12:43 pm

ISLAMABAD : The Pakistani and Indian foreign secretaries will meet on Saturday to finalise the agenda for the meeting between the Pakistani foreign minister and the Indian external affairs minister.
Pak India Foreign Secretaries Meeting Today
The Foreign Office spokesman of Pakistan, Abdul Basit said Pakistan had suffered a lot because of terrorism, and it was not “shy of holding talks on the subject and other issues of mutual concern”.

The spokesman said that it was premature to speculate on the outcome of talks and any agreement to restart the stalled peace process between the two countries. He, however, said that Pakistan was serious about restarting composite dialogue. Basit also said that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would brief his Indian counterpart on the progress of a trial for the alleged perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Meanwhile, foreign policy experts expressed guarded optimism over the outcome of the talks between the two foreign ministers.

“I think there will be a problem, as India has said talks will be just about terrorism,” said former foreign minister Sartaj Aziz, adding the “limited” agenda might hamper progress in the restoration of the peace process.

Former foreign secretary Najmuddin Sheikh said Pakistan should be “forthcoming” about the progress made in the Mumbai investigation.