7 years after Mumbai attacks, India, Pakistan resume dialogue

“The Composite Dialogue between our two countries, which later became the Resumed Dialogue, is being restarted as Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue and would have same pillars as the earlier processes”, she told journalists as she came out of a conference room after over an hour meeting with her Pakistani counterpart Mr Aziz at the Foreign Office.

India and Pakistan foreign secretaries will meet in January to thrash out the calendar and other modalities for the renewed and renamed “comprehensive bilateral dialogue” announced in Islamabad. She said that India was prepared to accept Afghanistan truks at the Indo-Pak Attari Border if Pakistan was agreeable to it. India would also like send goods trucks to Afghanistan from the Attari.

The disclosure of Modi’s visit was made by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here in yet another indicator of a positive turn in bilateral ties after the recent chill.

Analysts said India softened its position after a string of state elections when it was in the interest of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party to strike a hawkish, populist line against Pakistan.

Ties between India and Pakistan have been cool particularly since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power previous year.

They lauded the successful talks on terrorism and security related issues in Bangkok by the national security advisors of the two countries.

She added: “The entire world is waiting and rooting for a change”.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stressed his commitment to “an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned reconciliation process”, a reference to the talks, hosted by Pakistan, that foundered in July after news leaked that Taliban founder Mullah Mohamed Omar had been dead for two years.

He said that the United States wants Pakistan and India to continue to have a dialogue and to discuss and reach diplomatic solutions to some of the thorny problems which the two countries still facing. We salute the Afghan National Security Forces and the Afghan people for countering the forces of terrorism and extremism with courage and resilience. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani jointly opened the conference amid tight security.

Pakistan is said to have assured the Indian side that it is taking steps to expedite the early conclusion of trials of those accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks of 2009, the BBC’s Shahzeb Jillani in Pakistan reports.

Meanwhile, the nationwide backlash in reaction to BJP’s anti-Muslim, anti-Pakistan and militant Hindutva policies seemingly had rendered the Modi government in the right frame of mind to respond positively to Washington’s advice to return to the negotiating table. “But today, let us at least resolve to help Afghanistan — in the best traditions of good neighborliness — through more effective transit arrangements”. Officials said that only after India got the assurance on terrorism, that it went ahead with the dialogue process – which is reflected in the phrasing of the next sentence. Ghani subsequently blamed Pakistan for a surge in Taleban attacks inside Afghanistan, accusing Islamabad of sending “messages of war”.

The Pakistan Prime Minister welcomed the delegates and promised full support to all efforts for increasing peace in the region with the emphasis on stabilising Afghanistan.

“Both sides have agreed to start the negotiations afresh”, the Indian Foreign minister said addressing a press conference after the discussions.