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Friday, July 30, 2010
Singh hopeful of restoring Indo-Pak talks ‘sooner or later’
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that he was hopeful of restoring talks “sooner or later” to improve ties with Pakistan.
“I sincerely hope that... we will sooner or later be able to restore the dialogue to give it a proper sense of purpose,” Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
Singh refused to be drawn into a debate on whether the meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna in Islamabad had failed after they openly sparred at a joint news conference following the talks.
Pakistan took exception to remarks on the eve of the talks by a senior Indian civil servant accusing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
“I can say we are too close to the events to pass a firm judgement on the outcome of the recent discussions between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan,” he said.
“I think the way the press conference was handled at the end of the visit by the foreign minister of Pakistan could have been avoided because it detracts from a large element of agreement reached between the foreign ministers of the two countries,” he said. reuters
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk