New Delhi, Mar 24: India Thursday said it expected the dialogue process with Pakistan to move forward and “all issues of concern to the two countries would be discussed.”
“Our expectation is that this dialogue should move forward and that all issues of concern to both sides should be discussed,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters here when asked about New Delhi’s expectation from the India- Pakistan Home Secretary-level talks here next week.
Home Secretary G K Pillai and his Pakistan counterpart Chaudhary Qamar Zaman are expected to discuss a range of issues during their parleys on March 28 and 29.
The Pillai-Zaman meeting will be the first structured bilateral secretary-level meeting on counter-terrorism after the two countries decided to resume comprehensive talks.
Last week, Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik had met Rao to discuss the agenda for the meeting. On Monday, the envoy also met Pillai in this regard.
More than two years after India had suspended the composite dialogue with Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai attacks in November, 2008, the two sides decided in Thimphu in February to resume comprehensive dialogue on all outstanding issues.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Wednesday said wars are not a solution to the problems between India and Pakistan and hoped that their upcoming talks would help reduce the trust deficit and build a solid foundation for taking the peace process forward.
“Wars are not a solution. Talks are the only way forward between Pakistan and India,” Gilani told a visiting Indian peace delegation led by veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar.
He said his government would like to continue working with its Indian counterpart to “resolve all outstanding issues peacefully in just manner.”
Gilani said it was “his earnest hope” that upcoming talks “would serve to reduce the trust deficit and create a solid foundation for taking the process forward.”
He emphasised the need for an “uninterrupted as well as uninterruptible dialogue process to focus on contentious issues and on promotion of trade, economic, intelligence-sharing, sports and cultural cooperation.”
Gilani also called for increased people-to-people contacts and exchange of parliamentary delegations.
The Indian Commerce Secretary will visit Islamabad towards the end of April and other segments of the strategic dialogue are being scheduled to pave the way for a meeting of the two Foreign Secretaries, followed by the Pakistan Foreign Minister’s visit to New Delhi in July, Gilani said.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:00:00 IST