VILLINGILI ISLAND, Maldives, (Reuters) – India and Pakistan hailed progress in diplomatic ties today, promising to open a “new chapter” in their fraught relationship at a next round of formal peace talks.
Lasting peace between the nuclear-armed rivals is seen as essential to South Asian stability and to helping a troubled transition in Afghanistan as NATO-led combat forces plan their military withdrawal from that country in 2014.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani held nearly an hour-long discussion at a resort island in the Maldives, punctuating a recent thaw between the two.
That includes Pakistan’s decision to grant its giant neighbour favourable trade terms and end huge restrictions that require most products to move via a third country.
“The next round of talks will be more positive, more constructive and will open a new chapter in the history of both countries,” Gilani told reporters after the meeting with Singh on the sidelines of a summit of South Asian leaders.
“I can only assure you that I discussed all core issues.”
India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, resumed a peace dialogue in February that was derailed after an attack by Pakistan-based militants in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008.
“We will resume this dialogue with the expectation that all issues which have bedevilled relations between the two countries will be discussed,” Singh said. “The time has come to write a new chapter in the history of the relationship of the two countries.”
Progress has been slow but Gilani and Singh have put a personal face to the discussions.
“I have always regarded Prime Minister Gilani as a man of peace. Every time we have met, we have held very extensive discussions of relations of the two countries. These have yielded some positive results, but more needs to be done,” Singh said.
