Foreign Secretaries of India, Pakistan agree to carry forward dialogue

THIMPHU: Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan in a meeting here in Bhutan on Sunday night agreed on the need for a constructive dialogue between the two countries to resolve all outstanding issues.Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and India’s Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao affirmed the need to carry out forward the dialogue process.According to a press release, the meeting was held in “pursuance of the mandate given by the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, following their meeting in Thimphu in April 2010, and the meeting of the Minister of External Affairs of India and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan in July, 2010.”The Foreign Secretaries had useful and frank discussions on the steps required to be taken for further talks.Salman Bashir was assisted in the talks by Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik.The Foreign Secretaries who were in Thimphu to attend the SAARC Foreign Secretaries’ meeting, will brief their respective governments on their discussion – APP