By IANS,
New Delhi : The last round of talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan took place Nov 26, 2008, hours before Pakistani terrorists unleashed mayhem in Mumbai, killing 166 people. India suspended the composite dialogue soon after. Here is the chronology of important moments/meetings in India-Pakistan relations since:
Nov 26, 2008: India’s then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi hold talks in New Delhi.
Home secretaries of India and Pakistan hold talks in Islamabad under the fifth round of composite dialogue.
Nov 27, 2008: Qureshi cuts short his three-day visit to India after the Mumbai carnage in which India suspects the involvement of Pakistani nationals.
Feb 26, 2009: Meeting between foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the SAARC ministerial meeting in Colombo.
May 31-June 5, 2009: 103rd meeting of Permanent Indus Commission that deals with cross-border rivers.
June 16, 2009: Meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Zardari on the sidelines of BRIC and SCO summits in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. In the first summit-level meeting between the two leaders since 26/11, Manmohan Singh tells Zardari in front of the media that he has a limited mandate to convey to him that Pakistani territory can’t be used for terror against India.
June 26, 2009: Meeting between Krishna and Qureshi on the sidelines of the G8 outreach meeting in Trieste, Italy.
July 16, 2009: Meeting between Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the NAM summit in the Egyptian resort town Sharm el-Sheikh.
The meeting results in the contentious joint declaration that delinks the composite dialogue process from Pakistan’s action against terror and includes a reference to Balochistan, leading to uproar in India.
Sep 27, 2009: India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Sep 27, 2009: Krishna and Qureshi meet on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York. The deadlock persists with India asking Pakistan to take concrete action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage.
Feb 25, 2010: Foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan in New Delhi. The talks end without a breakthrough with the two diplomats agreeing to stay in touch.
March 27-31, 2010: 104th meeting of Permanent Indus Commission.
March 28-31, 2010: Biannual meeting between India’s Border Security Force and Pakistan Rangers
April 11-12, 2010: Manmohan Singh and Gilani exchange greetings at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington but no talks take place.
April 29, 2010: Manmohan Singh and Gilani meet in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu and direct their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries to work out modalities to bridge trust deficit.
May 11, 2010: Krishna and Qureshi hold telephonic conversation. Qureshi invites Krishna to Islamabad July 15 for talks. Before that, India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram will visit Islamabad June 26 for the meeting of home ministers of SAARC countries.