This Article is From Apr 09, 2009

Indo-Pak ministerial talks on Friday

New Delhi: In the backdrop of Pakistan's readiness for ",grand reconciliation", on outstanding issues, Foreign Ministers of the two countries will meet in New Delhi this week to take the peace process forward and discuss ways to bring about ",full normalisation", in their ties.

Terrorism, Kashmir and various confidence building measures are expected to figure prominently in the talks that External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will have with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi during the latter's three-day visit from Friday.

The talks, marking second high-level contact between India and the new Pakistan government in a month, will focus on ways to take forward the peace process and dialogue process and are expected to consider various proposals in this regard.

After his talks with Mukherjee in Islamabad in May, Qureshi had said Pakistan was willing for ",grand reconciliation", on outstanding issues, which need to be resolved through dialogue with ",self respect and dignity",.

On Kashmir specifically, he had said Pakistan was ready for ",innovative ideas", to resolve the vexed issue even though Islamabad wanted the matter to be addressed through UN resolutions and taking aspirations of Kashmiris into consideration.

In the backdrop of these statements, the Foreign Ministers will be discussing ways to resolve the issue during the upcoming talks.

At the talks, the two sides are expected to consider various issues, including launch of truck service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and opening of more routes for cross-Line of Control bus service.
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