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Manmohan keen on continuing talks with Pakistan
NEW DELHI: Taking advantage of the swing in momentum in its favour, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is pressing ahead with its foreign policy initiative to resume diplomatic negotiations with Pakistan.Stating this, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated the UPA's commitment to improving governance, which he argued would enable the country to achieve double-digit growth, in his reply to a debate on Friday over the motion of thanks for President Pratibha Patil's address to Parliament on 22 February.
Singh said the government was determined to push the dialogue forward as it would be counterproductive to stay aloof when the rest of the world was willing to talk to Islamabad.
"I have never believed that the channels of communication with Pakistan should break down. The chances of miscalculation can only increase in an environment of no contact," he said.
"The fact of the matter is that the rest of the international community is talking to Pakistan. So, our not talking to them is not going to isolate them.
"Singh, who is known to be keen on continuing talks with Pakistan, clarified that any meaningful dialogue could proceed only if the terror apparatus operating on that country's soil against India was controlled. The foreign secretaries of both countries met recently after a 13-month hiatus following the 26 November Mumbai terror attacks.
Pakistan said earlier this week that it had put forward a road map on how to restore dialogue. Singh rejected the Opposition's criticism that India had restarted the talks only under pressure from the US and said the decision had been a "calculated one".
Courtesy www.Geo.tv