After a 14-month hiatus, Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan met here today for structured talks with an aim of ending the chill in the relations caused by Mumbai attacks.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao headed the Indian delegation while the Pakistani delegation was led by her counterpart Salman Bashir.
Before getting into the talks at Hyderbad House, Rao said, "I welcome Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Salman Bashir...I look forward to our talks".
Bashir said, "...It is a pleasure for me to be back here. ....We are also looking forward to a very good, constructive engagement".
At the talks, India was set to raise concerns over continued terrorism emanating from Pakistan and press it to end this scourge which was hampering normalisation of ties.
In this context, Rao is expected to refer to the recent anti-India rally held by Jamat-ud-Dawa in Lahore where its chief Hafiz Saeed made provocative speeches inciting Pakistanis to intensify attack against the country.
India is also likely to seek the progress report from Pakistan on the investigation and prosecution into the Mumbai attacks.
Rao is also expected to seek voice samples of seven arrested LeT operatives in connection with Mumbai attacks to be provided to India to match them with telephonic intercepts recorded by the security agencies here.
The Pakistani side was expected to raise Kashmir and water issue.
India has made it clear that terrorism is the focus of these talks although it was ready to discuss any issue that could yield to peace and security between the two countries. India has played down any great expectations from these talks and cited the "trust deficit".
New Delhi has emphasised that the Foreign Secretary-level talks did not mean resumption of composite dialogue which was put on hold by India after the 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by ten Pakistani nationals.
After 26/11, Foreign Secretaries of the two countries have been meeting on the sidelines of various multi-lateral events. The last formal meeting between the Foreign Secretaries was held in May 2008.
Refusing to pre-judge the outcome of the talks, India, says the future of the relations could be determined by the way Pakistan acts on India's concerns. Arriving here yesterday, Bashir said, "I have come here to bridge the differences. I am hopeful of a positive outcome."
Bashir is also scheduled to call on External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon. Prior to Mumbai attacks, the composite dialogue which was launched in 2004 had made considerable progress during the four rounds.
Under the composite dialogue, eight issues including Jammu and Kashmir, Confidence Building Measures, Siachen and Sir Creek were discussed.
Stressing that focus of the talks would be terrorism, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said, "Key focus from our side is going to be terrorism and the attacks that had taken place and further, what are they going to do about it.
"Otherwise, there should not be too many expectations. We hope this will lead to further progress."
Maintaining that Kashmir was the "core issue", Pakistani Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit said they would like to raise the issue as it has given rise to many other issues between India and Pakistan.
"If the core issue of Kashmir was settled 60 year ago, our two countries would not have been in the situation in which we are today," Basit said.
