Chennai: The US on Wednesday said it was encouraged
by resumption of talks between India and Pakistan and the
upcoming meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two
neighbours was "another chance to make tangible progress".
"As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put it so beautifully, I
dream of a day, when while retaining our respective
identities, one can have breakfast at Amritsar, lunch at
Lahore and dinner in Kabul. That was how my forefathers
lived," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his counterpart
Hina Rabbani Khar are scheduled to meet in Delhi on July
26-27.
"I was very encouraged at reports of resumption of
dicussions between India and Pakistan... The upcoming meeting
of Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers is another chance to
make tangible progress..", Clinton said.
Chennai: The US on Wednesday said it was encouraged
by resumption of talks between India and Pakistan and the
upcoming meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two
neighbours was "another chance to make tangible progress".
"As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put it so beautifully, I
dream of a day, when while retaining our respective
identities, one can have breakfast at Amritsar, lunch at
Lahore and dinner in Kabul. That was how my forefathers
lived," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his counterpart
Hina Rabbani Khar are scheduled to meet in Delhi on July
26-27.
"I was very encouraged at reports of resumption of
dicussions between India and Pakistan... The upcoming meeting
of Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers is another chance to
make tangible progress..", Clinton said.
Clinton said India had pioneered some of its work over the
years in bringing people into the political system out of
insurgent phase in Afghanistan.
She also noted that in Kabul, earlier this year, Singh
had reaffirmed, India's commitment to Afghan-led
reconciliation and Indian government reinforced that
committment last month by supporting UN Security Council
resolution, that cleared the way for lifting sanctions.
India was rightly concerned about the outside
intereference in the reconciliation process, she said, adding,
"we agree with those concerns."
"We will continue to encourage New Delhi in constructive
role, for example, in advocating, based on India's own
experience, that reconciliation beginning at the very start of
the process must include representatives of a range of
political parties and ethnic groups."
She said the US also believed that Pakistan had a
central role in this process and those interests must be
respected and addressed.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 23:50