India and Pakistan to restart peace talks
Pakistan and India have agreed to restart peace talks suspended since train bombings killed more than 200 people in Mumbai in July as part of a wave of attacks India blames on Pakistan-based militants.
Describing their meeting as a breakthrough for peace, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh agreed on Cabinet-level talks by their foreign secretaries, and said Singh had accepted an invitation to travel to Pakistan to further the process.
“I look forward to a purposeful visit at a time to be determined through diplomatic channels,” Singh said after the leaders reached the agreement yesterday morning on the sidelines of the Non-aligned Movement summit.
“I am very happy,” Mr Musharraf said. “It’s very good.”
Both sides agreed to set up what they described as an anti-terrorism “mechanism” to work together on identifying and stopping terrorists.
“With Pakistan, this is the first time we’ve done this,” Shivshankar Menon, who becomes India’s foreign secretary next month, told journalists.
“This is a new step, a new way.” Pakistan’s agreement to set up such a joint project is what made the rest of the agreement possible, Menon said.
