Pak wants to normalise relations with India: Qureshi

Rezaul H Laskar
Islamabad, Mar 29 (PTI) Pakistan wants to normalise
its relations with India on the basis of "sovereign equality
and mutual respect" and the two countries should go back to a
structured dialogue process as this is the only way
forward,Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said
Monday.
Qureshi briefed a group of former foreign secretaries
and ambassadors at the Foreign Office about "Pakistan's
principled position vis-a-vis India", an official statement
said.
He exchanged views with them on key foreign policy
issues, including relations with India, the recent US-Pakistan
strategic dialogue and the upcoming Pakistan-EU summit.
Qureshi stressed that "Pakistan genuinely wanted to
normalise its relations with India on the basis of sovereign
equality and mutual respect".
Qureshi said: "It was necessary that our two countries
reverted back to a meaningful and structured dialogue process
as this was the only way forward."
In the first official contact between the two
countries since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the Foreign
Secretaries of India and Pakistan met in New Delhi on February
25.
Since then, Pakistan has been pushing for the
resumption of the stalled composite dialogue. India has said
it favours a step-by-step approach to normalising ties.
The former foreign secretaries and ambassadors said
the composite dialogue between Pakistan and India had produced
"good results".
They said it was in the interest of both countries to
"resume result-oriented dialogue and sooner the better".
Qureshi briefed the group on the outcome of the
Pakistan-US strategic dialogue held in Washington during March
24-25.
He said a "significant process had begun towards
moving the bilateral relationship from transactional to
strategic partnership" between the two countries.
Pakistan and the US had agreed to develop multifaceted
ties on the basis of "mutual interest, mutual respect and
mutual trust".
Referring to the upcoming Pakistan-EU summit to be
held in Brussels next month, Qureshi said Pakistan the meeting
will provide a useful opportunity to further strengthen
engagement and interaction with the European Union.
The former diplomats said Pakistan's relations with
the US were important and the government's efforts to evolve a
strategic partnership were in the right direction.
Among those attended the meeting were Abdul Sattar,
Akram Zaki, Humayun Khan, Tanvir Ahmad Khan, Najmuddin Shaikh,
Shahryar Khan, Riaz Muhammad Khan, Ashraf Jahangir Qazi, Aziz
Ahmed Khan and Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir. PTI