Islamabad : That Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries have agreed to meet Aug 25 despite recent clashes across the Line of Control (LoC) deserves to be lauded, said a Pakistani daily Friday.
The decision to hold the talks is indicative of the political leaderships’ keenness to move towards a normalisation of relations, the Dawn said in an editorial.
It is also a major move to revive the stalled peace talks after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart May 27, a day after the swearing-in ceremony of the Indian prime minister, it added.
“The Pakistani leaderÂ’s meeting with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi in May was not a ‘breakthroughÂ’. The meeting was much criticised in the Pakistani media,” the editorial noted.
“Nevertheless, the brief New Delhi get-together did lead to the two prime ministersÂ’ vision to improve and establish good-neighbourly relations.”
The date and venue of the upcoming talks was decided Wednesday during a telephonic conversation between Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and her Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad.
During her call, Sujatha Singh raised the issue of firing on the LoC in which an Indian soldier was killed Tuesday.
“This meeting is perhaps progress of sorts, given the nature of Indo-Pakistan relations and the obstacles in the way, not the least of which is the advent of a hard-line Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government that does not need a coalition for survival,” the editorial concluded.