Islamabad, September 10: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said he is ready to meet his Indian counterpart as part of efforts to improve relations between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Relations between the south Asian neighbours worsened dramatically when 166 people were killed in India’s financial capital last November in attacks New Delhi blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Pakistan’s official news agency, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted Qureshi as telling reporters in Islamabad late Wednesday that he was ready to engage with his Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna.
“I am making preparations to meet the Indian external affairs minister and a meeting might take place on the margins of UN General Assembly session in New York” later this month, the foreign minister said.
On Wednesday, an Indian army major and two militants died in a gunbattle when a group of heavily armed militants tried to sneak into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani-zone of the disputed state, the Indian army said.
Last month, Pakistan assured India of its “fullest cooperation” in preventing fresh terror acts following warnings from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that militants in Pakistan were plotting new strikes.
Pakistan also denies Indian accusations of arming and funding Islamist militants who have been waging a rebellion in Indian Kashmir since 1989 that has left more than 47,000 people dead, according to an official tally.
The two nuclear-armed countries have fought three wars since independence in 1947 and came dangerously close to a fourth following a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament by militants New Delhi said came from Pakistan.
“Pakistan wants the dialogue process to move forward as the region requires stability and peace,” Qureshi said. “It is important to resolve disputes for the sake of regional peace, stability and security,” he added.
New Delhi says it will resume talks to normalise ties only after Islamabad brings to justice the alleged perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.
India says the 10 gunmen who reached India by sea and laid siege to Mumbai for 60 hours last November were Pakistanis.
New Delhi says it has “overwhelming evidence” that “official agencies” in Pakistan were involved in plotting and executing the attacks — an apparent reference to Pakistan’s spy agency and army. Islamabad denies the charges.
–Agencies