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Union External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid met his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz on Friday and strongly raised the issue of maintaining peace along the Line of Control (LoC), even as they also discussed the proposed meeting between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan later this month during the United Nations General Assembly conference.
Khurshid, who met Aziz on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, told reporters there both, Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif could only meet if there was “a conducive atmosphere else there could be difficulties in furthering the talks.”
“If there is no peace and tranquility on the border and the LoC, then all our efforts go waste frankly. That is the most critical confidence building and that is the most critical commitment that has been made by both countries together and both have to live up to it, which is that there must be peace on the LoC and peace on the border. The cease-fire is the basic fundamental ingredient of confidence between our two nations; and that cease-fire must be respected, the LoC must be respected,” Khurshid told reporters.
The India-Pakistan bilateral relationship has suffered a major setback since January after reports of Indian soldiers being killed allegedly by the Pakistan army came to light. Following that, a series of incidents of similar cease-fire violations have been reported.
Khurshid said it was imperative that the cease-fire on the LoC was maintained and existing mechanisms were strengthened.
Both sides also discussed the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Aziz said that a prosecutor had been appointed and the visit of the Judicial Commission to India has been scheduled for September 23.
“We expected and hoped that the prosecutor would be soon appointed - the previous prosecutor was assassinated – and also that the evidence that was collected by the Judicial Commission could be made available to the trial court. Because cross-examination had not been done, that evidence was not accepted by court. So, now a Judicial Commission would come again on the 23rd, which is the date that we had given. We welcome that.”
Khurshid had earlier met Aziz in Brunei during the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting in July.
