No meeting on the cards for FMs

No formal meeting between foreign ministers of India and Pakistan has so far been fixed.

NEW YORK:

With Pakistan insisting that India-Pakistan talks on all outstanding issues should be "result-oriented", no formal meeting between foreign ministers of the two countries has so far been fixed on Monday, according to indications available Sunday.

Sources said a meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart SM Krishna would take place as soon as India agrees to a hold substantive talks aimed resolving the long-standing disputes, including Kashmir, where the situation has taken a turn for the worse.

But discussions aimed at setting up talks between the two foreign ministers are continuing, the sources said.

Indian Security forces, armed with shoot-on-sight orders, have been battling crowds of protestors demanding freedom in towns and cities across the valley, despite strict curfews.

"We have a principled position that the talks between the two countries should be result-oriented, not just a photo-op," one source said.

On Friday, Qureshi and Krishna, who are in New York attending the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, had a "chance encounter" at the United Nations when they came out of their separate engagements.

During the past week, Foreign Minister Qureshi has focused on the grave developments in Indian-occupied Kashmir at several public forums in New York.

Addressing a gathering at the Asia Society, he described Kashmir as the "festering sore of South Asia" and urged the US to play a facilitating role in resolution of the issue.

"The United States, as the world leader, has special responsibility towards finding a just and peaceful solution of Kashmir," the minister said.

The final document of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference's annual meeting this year, held on the sidelines of the opening week of the UN General Assembly, backed the Kashmiri people's struggle for the right to self-determination.

The OIC communique urged "the international community to play its due role to settle this long standing dispute on UN agenda for the overall improvement of the relations between Pakistan and India as well as to promote regional peace and stability".

India's Foreign Minister Krishna has maintained that Kashmir is an internal matter and rejected any interference from outside.

He, however, noted that all issues including Kashmir would be discussed when Qureshi comes to Delhi for talks at a yet to be fixed date.

"Everything that they want to discuss and everything we want to discuss with them will be discussed," he said.