PAKISTAN AND India have promised to work together to tackle terrorism. The pledge came at the end of a day of talks yesterday, the first time the two countries foreign ministers had met since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Both sides described the day of talks as “useful” and “frank” in a sign of gently warming relations between the two regional rivals.
The meeting was dominated by discussion of terrorism.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s foreign minister, said: “We have come to the understanding that the best way to deal with this threat is to recognise it as a common enemy and adopt a common approach to this manner.”
India’s SM Krishna said he had been given assurances that the trial of seven suspects allegedly involved in the Mumbai attacks would be accelerated and he extended an invitation to his Pakistani counterpart to visit New Delhi later this year for further talks.
The meeting was the third such contact between senior government figures in six months.
Relations have thawed under pressure from Washington which sees regional stability as key to finding peace in Afghanistan.
Yesterday’s meeting was the first between the two foreign ministers since 10 Islamist gunmen killed 166 people in 60 hours of carnage in India’s financial capital two years ago. Four years of peace talks were suspended after it emerged the attacks had been planned on Pakistani soil.
Build-up to yesterday’s summit was also overshadowed by fresh allegations that Pakistan’s intelligence agency was deeply involved in the attacks.
GK Pillai, India’s home secretary, said new information about the role of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency had emerged from the interrogation of David Coleman Headley, an American who pleaded guilty in the US in March to being in on the planning of the attacks.
Earlier, Pakistan’s president said he was fully committed to tackling the problem. “Pakistan is against militancy and terrorism in any form and in any location and both the governments needed to work more closely for eliminating this menace,” President Asif Ali Zardari said in a statement.
Mutual suspicion has dominated dealings ever since the subcontinent was divided in 1947. The countries have gone to war three times in their short rivalry, twice over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
As the ministers met, a suicide attack killed five people in the northwestern district of Swat, highlighting Pakistan’s struggle against Islamist militants who have killed more than 3,500 people in three years.