Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) In the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan since the 26/11 attack, S.M. Krishna goes to Islamabad Wednesday on a three-day visit that will focus on bridging the trust deficit and exploring ways of resuming “substantive dialogue” between the two countries.
Krishna’s visit has been in the making since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Bhutan over two months ago.

The visit is in “pursuance of the mandate given by the prime ministers of India and Pakistan, during their meeting at Thimphu in April to the foreign ministers and foreign secretaries of both the countries to work out the modalities of restoring trust and confidence in the relationship”, the ministry said Monday.

The meeting is aimed at “paving the way for a substantive dialogue on issues of mutual concern”, it added.

Krishna will hold wide-ranging talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi. The talks are expected to review the progress made by Pakistan in prosecuting the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack and India’s core concerns on terrorist groups targeting Indian interests and assets from the Pakistani territory.

All issues will be on the table, including terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir, official sources added here.

The meeting will build on the talks Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Home Minister P. Chidambaram had with their Pakistani counterparts in Islamabad last month.

During these talks, Pakistan conveyed that it will act with “full force” to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack to justice and address India’s concerns over terrorism.

The two ministers are expected to lay out a roadmap for limited interaction between the two countries that is likely to include meetings between officials and diplomats on issues relating to terrorism, trade, trans-Kashmir people-to-people contacts and the release of prisoners in each other’s jails.

Exhorting Pakistan to move beyond the nomenclature, India has made it clear that the forthcoming talks should not be construed as the resumption of composite dialogue, a point reiterated by Rao after her talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir June 24.

India’s approach to these talks is “incremental” and will wait to see “concrete action” from Pakistan and the 26/11 trial before enlarging the scope of dialogue, sources said.