Pakistani Foreign Minister Mahmood Qureshi has said that there has been trust deficit between India and Pakistan, and that it has to be bridged at the earliest.
In an apparent bid to drive a wedge between Indian government and the ruling party, Pakistan has said that "well-meaning" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was keen to normalise ties with it but "elements in Congress" did not support him.
Khan proposed a meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this month.
Pakistan is yet to decide on India's offer of $5 million as aid for providing relief to victims of the country's worst floods, with diplomatic sources saying that the proposal is being considered by the foreign office.
Pakistan has said it will be impossible for it to continue dialogue with India if New Delhi does not pay importance to the Kashmir issue. India must include the Kashmir issue in talks with Pakistan in order to take forward parleys between the two countries, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said. "It will be impossible for Pakistan to continue the dialogue if India does not pay importance to the Kashmir issue," Qureshi told reporters.
With United States' Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by his side, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday raked up the Kashmir issue and said his country wants a sustained dialogue with India.
Pakistan wanted to evolve a roadmap to discuss bilateral issues with India during the recent foreign minister-level talks but the other side was not prepared to do so, its Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said on Sunday.
As Washington tries to find its way out of Afghanistan, Pakistan has emerged as the central player dictating the terms of this emerging endgame in South Asia, notes Harsh Pant.
Krishna was with Dr Singh for about 30 minutes during which he gave a detailed account of his talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.
Government sources said the hawkish elements in Pakistan, which do not want dialogue between the two countries, were upset when the talks between the Home Ministers and Home Secretaries went off well last month.
The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan on Thursday may have sought to project before a global audience and their respective media that their much awaited talks were positive, constructive and meaningful it was anything but that. Going by the body language of both S M Krishna and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and the pointed, at times, aggressive questions asked by the media, it was plain and simple -- disastrous and awful.
The strongest argument for the creation of Pakistan was that Hindustan, the undivided India, could not be trusted to take care of the Muslims of the subcontinent. If trust breaks out between them, the whole rationale for the existence of Pakistan will be called into question, says T P Sreenivasan.
Terrorism that continues to emanate from Pakistani soil will be high on the agenda of External Affairs Minister S M Krishna as he embarks on a mission to Pakistan on Wednesday, in an effort to bridge the trust deficit that has bedeviled the ties between the two countries.
The extent to which the Barack Obama administration will go to humour Pakistan is highlighted by the fact that its envoy to United Kingdom drove four hours to Manchester to ensure that a zealous American airline security does not body-scan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi ahead of his arrival in Washington.When Qureshi's commercial flight to the US stopped in Manchester this week, American Ambassador in London Louis B Susman drove four hours to be there.
While Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is leading the Pakistani delegation for the Pak-US strategic talks beginning on Wednesday, it is Pak Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani who is actually in charge of running the show.
With India's patience running out, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Thursday asked his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi about the progress into the Mumbai terror attacks case and sought a quicker trial."I made enquiries about the progress they (Pakistan) have made about bringing to justice those who were responsible for the attack in Mumbai," said Krishna about his meeting with Qureshi in Kabul.
India maintains that it wants to be part of the project but cannot go ahead till its concerns with regard to security and issues related to pricing of gas are addressed.
Joe Root was named on Monday as England's cricketer of the year for 2014-15, the England and Wales Cricket Board said.
Surprised over reports that Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had invited him for tea at the Roosevelt Hotel, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has said that he never received any such invitation. "If he has invited me, then I don't know the mode of invitation through which it was conveyed to me, but let me be very honest that I have not received any invitation," Krishna told PTI.
Pakistan has indicated its readiness for the foreign secretary-level talks on February 25, saying the two sides need to 'move forward' but insisted on resumption of composite dialogue covering Kashmir and other outstanding issues that is 'meaningful and result-oriented.'
"We are opposed to nuclear proliferation as well as an arms race in the region," he said, adding that Pakistan believes the launch of the Indian nuclear-powered submarine will affect strategic stability.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday met Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, who had also met Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi earlier. Pakistani officials said that during the 30-minute meeting, Farooq briefed Zardari about the All Parties Hurriyat Conference's perspective of the ground realities in Kashmir.Earlier, the Pakistan foreign minister met Farooq, ahead of his meeting with his Indian counterpart S M Krishna on Monday.
India on Sunday rejected any back-channel talks with Pakistan and said no meaningful bilateral dialogue can take place unless that country took action against the Mumbai attack suspects. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna articulated India's position during his talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the first highest-level contact between the countries since their Prime Ministers met at the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh in July.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi are expected to hold telephonic talk on Tuesday to discuss ways to reduce trust deficit in pursuance to the decision reached between prime ministers of the two countries in Thimphu.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday appointed 2 deputy CMs besides allocating portfolios.
Pakistani authorities have a tendency to "pass the buck" and exaggerate differences with India over the sharing of river waters though mismanagement within the country is resulting in the loss of 34 million acre feet of water, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Quereshi said on Friday.
'He was sitting on a sofa in the Aamir Khan Productions office and he just loosened his body a little.' 'Then he delivered the perfect Bhai Thakur.' 'What followed was a spectacular jamming of the craft of acting.'
Qureshi's comments came in the wake of the Indian Army officials' remarks that the doctrine, which is reviewed every five years at the Army's Shimla-based Training Command, will now include scenarios such as a two-front simultaneous war with both China and Pakistan.
Modi said India is ready for constructive engagement with Pak.
A day after India gave "additional information" to Pakistan on the Mumbai terror attacks, Union External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Saturday said that New Delhi will keep providing more evidence to Islamabad "as and when" it is collected.
'Pakistan is determined to garner the peace dividends.' 'On the diplomatic front, this will be, principally, in terms of a revival of Pakistan's relations with the US,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Amid rising tensions in Indo-Pak ties after the Mumbai attacks, a number of world leaders, including British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and German Chancellor Angela Markel, held consultations with the Pakistani leadership to prevent the escalation of the crisis.
An inexplicable last-minute switch in the schedule of External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Thursday afternoon gives a clue to how the script went wrong in the Indo-Pak talks in Islamabad.
Terrorists targeted Pakistan's powerful Inter State Intelligence for the second time in less than a month on Tuesday, as suicide bombers struck its office in eastern Multan city detonating their vehicle packed with up to 1,000 kg of explosives, killing at least 12 people and injuring 47 others.
'Pakistan has received assurances that no dispensation in Afghanistan will be inimical to Pakistani interests and that Pakistan will have a say in the determination of the future of the region. India would definitely not be part of the new order if the US could help it.'
Seeking resumption of composite dialogue, Pakistan has said that India must "act responsibly" and stop being negative or it too will lose interest in taking the peace process forward.
"Our government has invariably made efforts to initiate the process of meaningful dialogue and adoption of peaceful means to resolve the issues but unfortunately the expansionist designs of India have remained the main hurdle in this regard," Abbasi said.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday briefed United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Pakistan's investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks and the trial of suspects linked to the incident.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has blamed India of being trapped in a 'Cold War mindset' and said New Delhi is not serious in resolving issues through talks with Islamabad, which were resumed last month after a 14 month long hiatus.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will not attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this month, effectively ruling out the possibility of talks with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the summit. Pakistan will be represented by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the meeting to be held at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago during November 27-29, official sources told PTI.
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