Striking a conciliatory note amid rising tension in ties, Pakistan today said it does not want to live in "perpetual hostility" with India, noting time has come for the two neighbours to decide whether status quo should continue or a new beginning be made.
The US said that it supports dialogue between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
Fourteen years after they last met, the directors general of military operations of India and Pakistan on Tuesday held an over two-hour-long meeting at the Wagah border to ease tensions and ensure peace on the Line of Control.
Talks between the water secretaries of India and Pakistan, which were scheduled to be held in Islamabad during January 28-29, have been put off against the backdrop of tensions between the neighbours over ceasefire violations along the Line of Control. "The talks have been postponed. New dates for the talks are yet to be decided," said an official of Pakistan's Foreign Office.
'There has been some progress made. There is a dialogue that has been ongoing between India and Pakistan. And that's \n\npositive,' White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has expressed readiness to engage with India and Pakistan in resolving the Kashmir issue if requested by both and asked them to resume talks to reach an agreement that would serve their security interests as well as that of the region.
One person was killed as violence erupted after India's victory over Pakistan.
Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday emphasised the need to avoid a conflict with India in the wake of the Mumbai attacks as China launched a diplomatic initiative to ease tensions by dispatching a top diplomat to Islamabad. Kayani's comments, believed to be his first on the situation, came during his talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei, who is in Islamabad.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed concern over the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan along the LoC and asked the two nations to resolve all differences through dialogue and engage constructively for a long-term solution for peace and stability in Kashmir.
Both countries began exchanging lists of the nuclear installations , under an agreement that prohibits the two countries from attacking each other's nuclear facilities.
The World Bank's move came as it told the two countries that it was responding to their separate proceedings initiated under the Indus Waters Treaty 1960.
In an exclusive telephonic interview with rediff.com from Srinagar, People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti accused the governments of Pakistan and India for the present situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sharif raises Kashmir issue at UNGA, renews plebiscite demand.
'Over the last year, Bajwa has created the environment to support bold moves on India. The ball is in India's court,' a senior Pakistan military officer tells Ajai Shukla.
Pausing the process for now, the bank would hold off from appointing the Chairman for the Court of Arbitration or the neutral expert -- appointments that had been expected on December 12 as earlier communicated by the bank.
The Pakistani president, however, said tension between the two countries will subside only if the Kashmir issue was resolved.
The then UK foreign secretary Jack Straw made the revelations during his depositions before the Chilcot Inquiry, which declared today that the Iraq invasion in 2003 had been based on "flawed intelligence".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have secured a rare concession from Pakistan that 'terrorism' and not the issue of Kashmir be the central theme of the India-Pakistan dialogue.
US Secretary of State John Kerry during his visit to Pakistan addressed the issue of terrorism and also called on both - India and Pakistan to find a diplomatic solution to the violence at the border issue.
The civilian leadership informed the military authorities that Sharif's hour-long meeting with Jindal was a part of back-channel diplomacy. And Jindal had the backing of some important Indian officials for the meeting to defuse ongoing tension between the two countries, the report said.
However, there will be no bilateral meetings between Swaraj, Sitharaman with their Pakistani counterparts.
Pakistani media reacted positively to the brief meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in Paris, describing it as "ice-breaker" which will lead towards easing of tension.
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal believes the India-US nuclear deal is not in limbo and it is for India and Pakistan to set the pace for conversations to resolve their issues. Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.
India has not been engaging with Pakistan since an attack on the air force base at Pathankot in January of 2016 by Pakistan-based terrorists, maintaining that talks and terror cannot go together.
This is the first time the Pakistan army has publicly backed the arrest of India-focused jihadis.
''At this stage we are closer to military confrontation than at any time since 1971.' 'Given the known positions of the two governments, it will not be surprising if this happens sooner rather than later,' says Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
Secretary Tillerson met with Foreign Secretary Jaishankar on Friday to discuss the US-India relationship and the agenda for Prime Minister Modi's meetings at the White House on June 26, a State Department spokesman said told PTI.
'For a long time Pakistan dreamt that India would break up and that it would be the predominant power in the region,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
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