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Shashank (L) and Khokhar smiled and shook hands at least four times at the request of photographers (AFP)
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NEW
DELHI, June 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - After a
three-year hiatus, Asian nuclear rivals Indian and Pakistan resumed
Sunday, June 27, "positive" talks on disputed Kashmir.
"Ideas
and proposals were exchanged to take the (peace) process further.
Discussions were held in a positive and constructive atmosphere,"
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters at the
end of a first round of negotiations between senior diplomats from
both countries.
The
talks, grouping Indian Foreign Secretary Shashank and his Pakistani
counterpart Riaz Khokhar, will continue into a final day on Monday,
June 28, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
discussions are being held against the backdrop of Pakistani prime
minister Zafarullah Jamali's surprise
resignation Sunday, June 26.
Sarna
said the proposals exchanged on Sunday were aimed at "creating
mutual trust and better understanding" between the two sides.
"Clearly
the aim was ... to carry this process forward," he added.
Masood
Khan, Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, was equally upbeat.
"The
atmospherics were positive," he told a press conference at the
Pakistani High Commission here.
"The
talks were held in a conducive atmosphere. Both sides engaged each
other intensely, fully and professionally. There were no difficulties
and there was a free flow of communication and exchange of ideas and
views."
On
Monday, the two delegations will tackle the more complex issue of
resolving the dispute over Kashmir, which is divided between India and
Pakistan and claimed in full by both.
"There
will be talks tomorrow on Kashmir. The attempt is to find a
solution," Khan said.
"Now
we are focused on dialogue ... the political leadership on both sides
is trying to come up with solutions acceptable to the people of India,
Pakistan and Kashmir."
He
said Sunday's talks had focused on confidence-building measures such
as lowering of troop numbers along the borders in Kashmir.
They
also discussed the question of soldiers missing in previous conflicts
and the repatriation of errant civilians, especially fishermen who had
strayed into each other's waters.
According
to India's Sarna, also on the table are issues such as a bus service
linking the two zones of divided Kashmir, another connecting Sindh in
Pakistan with Rajasthan in India and the opening of consulates in
Bombay and Karachi.
Before
the start of Sunday's talks, Khokhar and Shashank smiled and shook
hands warmly at least four times -- at the request of the huge battery
of photographers who were present at the venue of the talks in New
Delhi.
The
nuclear rivals agreed Sunday, June 20, to maintain a ban
on nuclear tests and set up a hotline to avoid a sudden
nuclear confrontation.
They
approved last February a roadmap
of four-month discussions on disputes including the issue of Kashmir.
The
last time India and Pakistan sat down to settle key differences was in
2001 at a failed summit in the Taj Mahal city of Agra between India's
then-premier Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf.
Pakistan
and Indian had fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of
them over Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir.
India
says all of Muslim-majority Kashmir is an integral part of its
territory and accuses Pakistan of fomenting an "insurgency"
against its rule.
Pakistan,
which controls about a third of the disputed region, rejects the
charges and presses for a plebiscite among Kashmiris as called for by
UN resolutions.
