India, Pakistan peace talks to resume

Pakistan confirms agreement with India to resume dialogue "on all issues".

NEW DELHI: Pakistan confirmed on Thursday an agreement with India to resume dialogue "on all issues", more than two years after peace talks collapsed, and said its foreign minister would visit India by July.

The foreign ministry made the announcement in a statement that followed a meeting on Sunday between the two countries' top foreign ministry civil servants in Bhutan, where the two prime ministers also met in April 2010.

"They have agreed to resume dialogue on all issues following the spirit of the Thimphu meeting between the two prime ministers," said the statement.

"The foreign minister of Pakistan will visit India by July 2011 to review progress in the dialogue process with his counterpart. This will be preceded by a meeting of the two foreign secretaries," it added.

Talking to Pakistan’s state television channel today, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan wanted to resume the composite dialogue with India in good faith.

He said that Pakistan wants to resume unconditional talks with its neighbor, adding that the resumption of dialogue is a good step that will boost peace and prosperity in the region.

Quershi said that the foreign ministers of both the countries could meet in July or earlier.

Earlier, Indian sources had confirmed that India and Pakistan had agreed to resume formal peace talks.

"The new talks are in effect the formal resumption of the composite dialogue," a senior Indian government official involved in repairing ties with Pakistan told Reuters.

"What happened in Thimphu is that we both agreed ... there is support for the (peace) process (on both sides)," the official said, adding the new round of talks would not be called "composite dialogue".

When asked whether formal talks were being started, another Indian official replied: "Yes, it's another attempt," though he stressed that progress would be "incremental".

Indian government sources had said it had been agreed that talks would resume at several levels, including between the home secretaries of the two countries "in the coming months", leading up to talks between their foreign ministers later this year.

New Delhi suspended a 2004 peace process between the two sides after the commando-style militant attacks in India's commercial capital, blaming Pakistan-based militants for the deaths of 166 people.

Here are some of the main issues between India and Pakistan.

Security

For India, security is the top issue. New Delhi broke off talks with Pakistan following the 2008 Mumbai attacks and had refused to resume dialogue, saying Pakistan had to take more action against Pakistan-based militant groups. India blames the attacks on Pakistan-based militants and it wants Islamabad to show it is serious in reining in those behind the raids which killed 166 people.

This is complicated by Indian suspicions that the Pakistan security establishment backed the militants in some way. Indian Home Secretary G.K. Pillai has directly blamed Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for the attacks.

Testimony from Pakistani-American David Headley, who scouted targets for the militants who staged the attack, says some ISI officers were connected to the plot.

For its part, Pakistan accuses India of backing separatists in its Balochistan province and providing weapons and funding to Pakistan Taliban groups, charges India denies.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a major source of friction. The two countries have long competed for influence there and Pakistan is deeply suspicious of a rise in India's presence after the fall of the Islamabad-backed Taliban government in 2001. It accuses India of using Afghanistan as a base to create problems inside Pakistan, including backing separatists in its Balochistan province. India denies the accusations, saying its focus is on development.

India worries that an Afghanistan dominated by Pakistan's allies in the Taliban after a U.S. pullout would allow anti-Indian militants a base from which to launch attacks.

This rivalry is complicating U.S.-led efforts to end an intensifying Taliban insurgency and bring stability to Afghanistan nearly a decade after the Taliban were ousted.

Kashmir

Kashmir is at the heart of hostility between the neighbours and was the cause of two of their three wars since independence from Britain in
1947. Separatists began an insurgency against Indian rule in 1989 – a movement almost immediately backed by Pakistan – and since
then tens of thousands of people have been killed.

The United States, however, has shown no enthusiasm for getting involved in what it calls a bilateral issue for Pakistan and India.

Water

The two countries disagree over use of the water flowing down rivers that rise in Indian Kashmir and run into the Indus river basin in Pakistan.

The use of the water is governed by the 1960 Indus Water Treaty under which India was granted the use of water from three eastern rivers, and Pakistan the use of three western rivers.

Pakistan says India is unfairly diverting water with the upstream construction of barrages and dams. India denies the charge.

Siachen

Indian and Pakistani forces have faced off against each other in mountains above the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram range, the world's highest battlefield, since 1984.

The two sides have been trying to find a solution that would allow them to withdraw troops, but India says it is unwilling to bring its forces down until Pakistan officially authenticates the positions they hold.

Pakistan has said it is willing to do so but on the condition that it is not a final endorsement of India's claim over the glacier, one source of meltwater for Pakistan's rivers.