As he prepares to meet External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in July, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said 'nothing dramatic' should be expected from 'one sitting' and emphasised that the dialogue process should be made 'irreversible'.Qureshi, who along with Krishna has been tasked to bridge the trust deficit, said mutual suspicions were the main reason for the trust gap and the two countries should work towards removing those.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has agreed to come here and India is looking forward to the visit during which the two sides will try to reduce differences, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said in New Delhi on Tuesday. The minister said India has been trying to build cordial relations with Pakistan and hoped for "reciprocity" of these efforts.
In a wide-ranging interview with French daily Le Monde, the minister said Pakistan does not deny sending terrorists to India.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said he may visit India in the first quarter of 2011 if there was a breakthrough in talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in Bhutan in February. Qureshi said the foreign secretaries would meet to discuss the agenda for talks and he was likely to visit New Delhi in the first quarter of the year if there was a breakthrough in talks between the top diplomats.
India's Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu, who captured the imagination of the entire nation by winning a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, has ignored Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali's offer for a 'better coach', saying that her current guru Pullela Gopichand is the 'best coach' for her.
An own goal from Walid Abbas in the third minute of stoppage time gifted holders Iraq a precious 1-0 win over United Arab Emirates to kick-start their Asian Cup title defence on Saturday.
An own goal from Walid Abbas in the third minute of stoppage time gifted holders Iraq a precious 1-0 win over United Arab Emirates on Saturday to kick-start their Asian Cup title defence.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will hold talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Islamabad on June 24 to finalise the agenda for an upcoming meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries.
The visit will be followed by the return visit of the Indian delegation to Islamabad on March 28.
Their talks in New York might not have materialised, but External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has invited his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi to visit India to witness the Commonwealth Games.
Amid talk over why the Indo-Pak bilateral meeting did not work out on sidelines on the UNGA, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi appeared to suggest that India had changed its mind on the meeting though he was willing to meet "anywhere, anytime".
In the other match of the day, Dan Lawrence and Jack Burnham hit centuries as title contender England crushed Fiji by a massive margin of 299 runs.
Embarrassed by inclusion of former Pakistan Air Force chief's photograph in a government advertisement on Sunday along with Indian leaders and icons, the Prime Minister's Office apologised to the nation and ordered an inquiry into the lapse.
The skeletons continue to tumble out in the spot-fixing saga with British tabloid News of the World revealing details of the conversations between alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed and their undercover reporter during the sting operations.
According to reports, the militant commanders, including Sim Khan, Mahmood Khan and Maulvi Umer, who were arrested during operation Rah-e-Rast, have confessed that they were provided financial aid, weapons and special training by secret agencies from India and Afghanistan to fight against the Pakistan Army.
Police have reported 55 heat-related deaths in Orissa and at least 45 in Andhra Pradesh. Sixty-six were reported in Telangana.
The meeting is seen as part of efforts by the RSS and the BJP to reach out to the Muslim community and send out a message of peace and harmony.
The Indian government has not yet been formally asked to start supplying the aid and the Foreign Office spokesman said the matter is still being discussed. "We are working on it and the decision will soon be made public," spokesman Abdul Basit said.
Contending that the relations with Pakistan had undergone 'transformation," India on Thursday said it had decided to have dialogue after assurance at the level of Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani that India's 'core concern' with regard to terrorism would be addressed adequately.
Pakistan has always desired a purposeful dialogue with India to resolve outstanding problems, including the core issue of Kashmir, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday.Qureshi said, Referring to Pakistan's policy on Kashmir, he said, "We want a just and peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue in light of the United Nation's resolutions and according to the aspirations of the Kashmiri people," he said.
Pakistan agreed to a change in the format for future talks with India in return for New Delhi's consent to resume broad-based engagement with it, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied India consular access to Jadhav on the ground that it was not applicable in cases related to spies.
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.'
