The US and UK are engaged in intense ‘behind-the-scene efforts’ to break the ‘deadlock’ in the Indo-Pak peace process.
The US and UK are engaged in intense ‘behind-the-scene efforts’ to break the ‘deadlock’ in the Indo-Pak peace process and pave the way for a crucial foreign secretaries’ meeting on American soil that could be a starter to formal talks between Islamabad and Delhi.
According to diplomatic sources here, the two world powers are again working with the rival neighbours on a neutral venue for the foreign secretaries’ talks after their recent meeting in Egypt. The sources said if the deadlock ends, the two foreign secretaries could meet next month in New York, before the meeting of the Indo-Pak foreign ministers, at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meet, scheduled in mid-September.
The sources added that the world powers are working with Islamabad and Delhi on holding foreign secretary-level talks because of their importance, as the meeting will work out the schedule and agenda for the peace process, to be presented before the foreign ministers to formally announce resumption of talks.
If the foreign ministers meet in New York after the foreign secretaries’ meeting, president Asif Ali Zardari could also have a meeting with prime minister Manmohan Singh, and the two could make an announcement about resumption of talks, instead of their foreign ministers.
But foreign office sources here believe that chances of a breakthrough on the foreign secretaries’ meeting are not very bright, owing to India’s insistence on the prosecution of Hafiz Saeed, for which it recently handed over a fresh dossier to Pakistan with claims that it has solid reason for action against him.
The sources said Pakistan believed that India had failed to provide concrete evidence on Saeed’s role in the Mumbai attacks.
The sources, however, added that Pakistan wants to resume peace talks with India, and to break the deadlock it has invited the Indian foreign secretary to visit Islamabad and hold talks with his counterpart, so that an agenda and schedule could be worked out to resume the peace process that came to a halt last year after 26/11.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}