News
Saturday, July 17, 2010
India not ready for talks* New Delhi wants to limit dialogue process to selective issues
ISLAMABAD: Only a day after both Pakistan and India struck a positive note for the future of the bilateral dialogue process, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday said India was not mentally ready for the talks, as it wanted to discuss only selective issues.
“It is unfortunate that India wants to discuss the issue of terrorism. This was simply not acceptable to Pakistan,” Qureshi told reporters at the Foreign Service Academy in Islamabad. “We wanted that our discussions should lead to a roadmap, but the Indians felt they did not have the mandate to commit to it,” Qureshi said.
Qureshi said when he had met Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on Thursday night, he was in good spirits and during the informal meeting in the presence of the two foreign secretaries, modalities for the talks were almost finalised. “But something happened overnight and there was a bit of change in the stance of Krishna the next day,” he said.
He said that although Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Krishna “had a positive approach for resuming the talks, they faced some other problems in reviving the process”.
Qureshi said he was holding the dialogue process with the full mandate, but Krishna “had to seek guidance and call New Delhi on various issues during the talks”.
“We are ready for talks with India on all the issues, but Pakistan cannot ignore its national interest,” he said.
He said the progress achieved in the dialogue process that started in 2004 and continued until 2008 should not be wasted due to “unknown reasons”.
Referring to the Kashmir issue, Qureshi said, it had been part of the negotiations in the past and it was not possible for Pakistan to ignore it now. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk