At the end of discussions at the foreign secretary level between Indian and Pakistan in Islamabad, which were focused on peace and security, India pointed out that terrorism had complicated the Indo-Pak relationship. India has urged Islamabad not to follow a segmented approach.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters that terrorism was a threat to peace and security and had complicated relationship between India and Pakistan in the past. Even so, India and Pakistan are engaging in a dialogue at the level of home secretary and interior secretary to mitigate this threat -- to eliminate this threat.
"We cannot have a segmented approach because it affects all of us," Nirupama Rao told reporters. "India and Pakistan must work together concertedly to eliminate this threat," Rao added.
Stressing that peace and security can bring stability in this relationship, Rao said, "When you have stability you can explore various possibilities to help people come closer to each other to promote trade, to promote commerce, to promote people to people exchanges to help easier travel between the two countries and to do all that you need an atmosphere of peace and security, so that was the idea, it was the confidence building process".
Expressing satisfaction over the talks, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, said that both the countries need to work on 'peace and security' to resolve all outstanding issues.
"We are happy to have her lead, the Indian delegation for this round of talks. We worked for the last two years to get where we are today and happy where we are today. We have had good productive exchange of views. I believe these were constructive, forward looking and as the foreign secretary just said we need to continue to engage on the most important issue and that is peace and security," said Bashir.
Expressing concern over the rise of militancy and extremism in the region, Bashir said such issues need to be tackled effectively as they disturb the peace and security of the entire region and the world.
"Terrorism is certainly an issue that disturbs peace and security. I think there should be absolute clarity on that. This is an issue which Pakistan itself has been decisively dealing...and we want to cooperate with everyone and most notably with India, through home secretary's mechanism to deal with this issue," he added.
Salman Bashir also said that Pakistan itself is a victim of terrorism and would want the entire world to cooperate in fighting this evil.
