Asked about the progress in ties, the sources said this goes back to Paris where the two Prime Ministers desired to find a way to go forward and India saw the “Heart of Asia” conference as a good opportunity and to convince Pakistan to have NSAs meeting before the External Affairs Minister comes here. Economic and Commercial Cooperation, Counter-Terrorism.
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A statement issued after the meeting said they had talked about terrorism, Kashmir, peace and security.
The rapprochement is, importantly, based on a commitment by Pakistan that it would expedite the trial of Mumbai accused – a promise that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also made during his visit to the White House in November, where he had pledged to take effective action against Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates.
“The enemies of Afghanistan are the enemies of Pakistan and the (Pakistan) government will continue to support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process that remains the most viable option to promote stability and end violence”, he said.
“Both the countries have agreed to resume the stalled talks”, said India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz.
Earlier, while speaking at the Heart of Asia Conference, Swaraj expressed India’s willingness to help Afghanistan in shoring up its defence capability. The countries’ foreign secretaries will schedule the forthcoming meetings in talks up to Thursday.
However, NSA-level talks between India’s Ajit Doval and his then Pakistani counterpart Sartaz Aziz scheduled in New Delhi in August were cancelled after the Pakistan high commissioner in New Delhi insisted on inviting Hurriyat leaders for pre-talks consultations before Aziz arrived.
“She said repeatedly that PM Sharif’s sincerity was beyond doubt and appreciated his willingness to accept shortcomings and move ahead with the process”. She noted that the demand likely came from the Indian side. With Pakistan stymieing Indian efforts to join the transit agreement, India is now pushing to complete developing the Chabahar port in Iran for connectivity to Afghanistan and beyond. The main problem of this region is the terrorists activities of Taliban initially confined to Afghanistan and now spread over to the Pakistan and other terrorists groups like Leshker-e-Toiba and Jammat-e-Islami infiltrating in India mostly from Pak occupied Kashmir. The entire world is waiting and rooting for a change.
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Before Paris, the Prime Ministers of the two nations had held bilateral meeting in Russian city of Ufa where they decided that their NSAs would meet to discuss all “terror-related” issues. “Let us not disappoint them”, she said.
