FS talks are 'encouraging step' to restore dialogue: Krishna

New Delhi, Feb 26 (PTI) Government Friday said the Foreign
Secretary-level talks with Pakistan represented an
"encouraging step" towards restoring dialogue and better
communication but made it clear that the engagement would
depend on response to India's core concern on terrorism.
Making a suo motu statement in both Houses of Parliament
a day after the talks, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna
said the Indian side had told Pakistan that "trust and
confidence" must be restored if "we are to build upon the past
discussions held between the two countries at an appropriate
time."
Quoting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he emphasised that
India could "not wish away the fact that Pakistan is our
neighbour" and that the government was convinced that door for
dialogue with it "must not" be shut.
"The talks between India and Pakistan .. represent an
encouraging step towards restoring dialogue and better
communication between the two countries," Krishna said while
informing Parliament about Thursday's meeting between Foreign
Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman
Bashir in the national capital.
Underlining that "communication and engagement represent
the best way forward", he insisted that by talking, India was
not diluting its position or resolve to defeat terrorism.
At the same time, he said, "India's engagement with
Pakistan will be predicated, as it has been since the Mumbai
attack, on the response of Pakistan to our core concerns on
terrorism."
On Pakistan's view that the Composite Dialogue between
the two nations should be restored, "we responded that the
resumption of such a process would have to await the
restoration of greater trust and confidence", Krishna said.
He noted that the "sincere and genuine efforts" made in
the past years by India for building trust and confidence had
been "repeatedly thwarted by acts of terrorism".
Krishna said the two sides held a "frank, constructive and
useful" meeting Thursday and the Indian delegation stated
"clearly and in a forthright manner India's continuing
concerns on terrorism."
India noted the steps taken so far by Pakistan regarding
Mumbai attack but said "these steps did not go far enough to
bring the perpetrators of the attack to book in an expeditious
and transparent manner, nor are these steps enough to unveil
the full conspiracy behind the attack," the minister said.
Rao conveyed to her Pakistani counterpart the need for
Pakistan to take effective action to ban anti-India activities
or organisations such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which has been
proscribed by the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee,
established under the UNSC Resolution 1267, and their leaders
who have "openly and blatantly espoused an agenda of violence
and terrorism against India".
The Indian side asked Pakistan to dismantle the
infrastructure of terrorism which continues to exist in the
territory under its control and used against India, he said.
Rao also asked Pakistan to investigate the "claims made
in the territory under Pakistan's control owning the
responsibility for the recent Pune blast." The claim was made
by an unknown outfit called Lashkar-e-Taiba Al-Alami.
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