Signalling its intent to engage Pakistan after months of chill in ties, India on Thursday proposed talks at the level of foreign secretaries.
Confirming this, official sources on Thursday said: ?We have proposed foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan and will enter these discussions with an open and positive mind.?
In the last one week, there had been clear signals from the government that it was moving towards engaging Pakistan again. Ties have been in deep freeze ever since the 26/11 attacks, despite the meeting of the Prime Ministers at Sharm-el-Sheikh last year.
Home minister P Chidambaram is expected to attend the Saarc Interior Ministers? meeting in Islamabad this month-end. On Wednesday, external affairs minister SM Krishna too said that ?the doors were never shut? on talks with Pakistan.
Responding to the Indian offer, Pakistan said it would welcome any move to resume the composite dialogue process but insisted that the talks should be ?result-oriented? and cover all outstanding issues, including Kashmir and sharing of river waters.
?Pakistan will welcome the resumption of the composite dialogue because we are for a meaningful engagement with India,? foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit said at a news briefing, responding to a question on whether the two countries were on the verge of reviving their peace process. India?s tough post-26/11 stance has changed after the Pakistan government gave it in writing, almost six months ago, that Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi was the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks. Following that, the Pakistan government produced evidence in court against those held in connection with the attacks.
During the talks, sources said that the foreign secretary will raise ?all relevant issues?, including counter-terrorism, which ?could contribute to creating an atmosphere of peace and stability? between the two countries.
On the outcome of the proposed meeting, the sources said this should not be pre-judged. Though no dates have been fixed, the window of opportunity lies between February and April-end when the Prime Ministers of the two countries will head for the Saarc summit in Bhutan.
Although formal talks were suspended, Krishna had met with counterpart Shah Mahmoud Qureishi seven times in the last seven months on the sidelines of multilateral events?during the G-8 last June in Trieste (Italy), NAM in July at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Asean sidelines in July at Phuket, UN General Assembly in September in New York, in Kabul in November, exchange of greetings in Port of Spain during CHOGM in November, and in London during the conference on Afghanistan this January.