Addu City (Maldives), Nov.10 (ANI): Emphasising that terrorism poses the most serious threat to regional peace and stability, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said both India and Pakistan need to ensure that it does not spoil the atmosphere of bilateral relations.
Briefing mediapersons about the interaction between Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani, Mathai said: "The Prime Minister mentioned that terrorism is a perennial concern and it now affects Pakistan also, (and added) we have an obligation to work together to ensure that it does not spoil the atmosphere of our bilateral relations."
"In this context (of terrorism), it was noted that Pakistan had proposed to send a judicial commission to take forward the issues relating to the Mumbai attacks. Prime Minister did mention that it is imperative to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice," Mathai added.
Mathai said: "Dr. Singh also mentioned that on the judicial commission proposal, we will be responding to the Pakistanis as soon as possible. (Prime Minister) Gilani also assured Dr. Singh that all possible steps were being taken in the context of the joint fight against terror."
He further said that both Prime Ministers had expressed satisfaction that the bilateral dialogue had been resumed and had made substantive progress on many issues in keeping with the mutual understanding reached at Thimphu during the last SAARC Summit to bridge the trust deficit and restore the dialogue process.
"They agreed to continue the dialogue process with the aim of building a mutually cooperative and productive relationship between the two countries, keeping in mind that there is a need for the countries to have an environment which is free of hostility and violence," he added.
He said both leaders endorsed the measures to facilitate trade and travel across the Line of Control that was agreed between the foreign ministers of the two countries during their July 2011 meeting in New Delhi. They called for its expeditious implementation.
On the issue of trade and economic relations, Mathai said: " Both leaders agreed that the process of trade normalisation between both countries will be pursued to its logical conclusion by conducting trade on an MFN basis at the earliest."
"They also decided that the liberalised visa regime, which has been negotiated, should be put in place at the earliest," he added. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
