Trieste/New Delhi, June 26: Ten days after the crucial meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan in Russia, Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Friday told his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi to address the issue of terrorism ‘centrally’ and fulfill Islamabad’s pledge of not allowing its territory to be used for anti-India activities.
The first meeting between India’s new foreign minister and his Pakistani counterpart took place on the sidelines of the G8 outreach meeting in the Italian coastal city of Trieste. Italy will host the G8 summit of the world’s wealthiest nations July 8-9.
Krishna also met his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta and discussed the situation in the violence-racked country. He will be meeting his counterparts from Britain, Canada and Italy over the next two days, the external affairs ministry said in New Delhi.
Alluding to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s pointed anti-terror message to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg June 16, Krishna reminded Qureshi about Islambad’s pledge of not allowing its territory to be used for anti-India activities.
Krishna and Qureshi reviewed the status of bilateral ties that took a sharp nosedive after the Nov 26-29, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks, allegedly masterminded and executed by Pakistani militants, leading to a stalling of the composite dialogue between the two countries.
‘In my meeting today, we have reviewed the current status of India-Pakistan relations. These have remained under considerable stress and the primary cause of this is the terrorist attacks on India, by elements based in Pakistan,’ Krishna told reporters after his meeting with Qureshi.
‘FM Qureshi and I, however, also agreed in our discussions today of the vast potential that exists in India-Pakistan relations,’ he said.
‘I conveyed the sentiments of our prime minister that we stand ready to meet Pakistan more than half way to utilize and harness that potential for our mutual benefit,’ he said.
Amplifying Manmohan Singh’s message to Zardari in Russia, Krishna underscored the importance of addressing the central issue of cross-border terrorism that has plagued ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. ‘At the same time, we have to address centrally why our relations come under stress recurrently,’ he said.
The two ministers also discussed possible dates for the forthcoming meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries to review the actions Islamabad has taken against anti-India terrorist outfits. No final dates have, however, been set.
‘I also conveyed, therefore, that the forthcoming meeting of foreign secretaries, as was decided by our leaders in Russia, is important as it will enable us to take stock of where we stand on the issue of terrorism and the fulfilment by Pakistan of its assurance that its territory would not be used for terrorist attacks on India,’ Krishna said.
In their first meeting since the 26/11 attacks in Russia, Manmohan Singh and Zardari in Yekaterinburg agreed that the foreign secretaries of the two countries would meet and review Islamabad’s compliance with the anti-terror pledge before they meet again in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement July 15-17.
Shortly after Zardari’s return to Islamabad, the Pakistani foreign office, however, announced that Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani would represent Islamabad at the NAM summit.
The foreign secretaries’ meeting could possibly set the stage for a resumption of the stalled dialogue, but it is not clear what form the dialogue will take in days to come.
–IANS–