By IANS
New Delhi : India and Pakistan will launch the fifth round of composite dialogue next year after the installation of the new government in Islamabad, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Friday.
“The fourth round of composite dialogue has been completed. After the installation of the new government in Pakistan next year, we will launch the fifth round after a review of the fourth round by foreign secretaries of the two countries,” Mukherjee said after his bilateral talks with Pakistan’s caretaker foreign minister Inam-ul-Haq.
The elections are expected to be held in Pakistan by January next year.
We have to wait for a regular government to start the next round of dialogue, he stressed.
Mukherjee and Haq met on the sidelines of the SAARC ministerial conference and discussed an entire gamut of bilateral and regional issues, including disputes over Kashmir, Sir Creek and Siachen glacier.
The peace process between India and Pakistan has been languishing due to the ongoing political turmoil in the neighbouring country that started with mass protests triggered by the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary in March and became pronounced after the imposition of emergency last month.
“Pakistan is keen to start the next round of dialogue. The peace process is on track,” a top official, who did not wish to be named, said.