India and Pakistan should resume dialogue irrespective of whether Islamabad takes "sufficient" action against the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, a senior European Union official said on Thursday.
Ambassador Jan de Kok, head of the European Union delegation to Pakistan, made the remarks in response to a question at a news conference in Islamabad.
"Irrespective of whether or not Pakistan has taken sufficient steps on the Mumbai issue, we will, in our discussions with both countries, stress for the resumption of dialogue," de Kok said.
"Whatever happens between the two countries, we will urge them to stay in dialogue and resume the composite dialogue," he said.
De Kok's comments came ahead of foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan in New Delhi on February 25.
The two sides have expressed divergent views on the agenda for the talks, with India saying that they will focus on terrorism.
"We hope that the February 25 meeting will be the beginning of eventual resumption of the composite dialogue.
The two Foreign Secretaries, we hope, would discuss more than just counter-terrorism," de Kok said.
The European Union is "urging both countries to resume the composite dialogue because we believe it was a good process and was making progress," de Kok said.
It is in the interest of both countries and the region that "dialogue resumes at the earliest, he added.
The European Union would, in discussions with India and Pakistan, ask both countries to resume the composite dialogue instead of having a "number of meetings on separate issues", de Kok said.
