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| Pakistan India to hold informal talks in Dhaka | | | DHAKA - The foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India will meet informally in Dhaka ahead of a
South Asian foreign ministers' meeting, an official said.
"The Pakistan foreign secretary will hold an informal meeting with his Indian counterpart at 11:30 pm
(1530 GMT) Monday," Pakistan embassy spokesman Sajida Iqbal Sayeed told reporters Sunday in the
Bangladeshi capital.
It will be the first foreign secretary level meeting between the arch-rivals after India delayed talks
scheduled for July 20-21 in New Delhi in the wake of a series of blasts on trains in India's financial
capital Mumbai.
The delayed talks were part of a peace process in place since January 2004 between India and Pakistan
two years after they came to the brink of war.
India delayed the talks because it said Islamabad and a Pakistan-backed Islamic rebel group were
involved in the Mumbai blasts that killed 183 people and wounded more than 800 on July 11.
India's junior foreign minister Anand Sharma said New Delhi would restart peace talks with arch-rival
Pakistan only after it took action against Islamic militants operating from its territory.
"Talks can only take place when Pakistan realises the need to take firm action," junior foreign minister
Anand Sharma told the Times of India in remarks published Sunday.
The scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir -- divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in its
entirety by both -- has been the trigger for two of their three wars since 1947.
Dhaka is hosting a two-day meeting of the foreign ministers of the South Asian Association of Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) that starts Tuesday to discuss regional trade and other issues.
The foreign secretaries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka will
meet Monday to set the agenda.
The foreign minister and secretary of Afghanistan will also attend the meeting. Kabul was accepted
into SAARC in November 2006 and will receive formal membership in 2007 at a summit of the group
to be held in New Delhi. |
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