At the end of day long discussions at Foreign Secretary level here
today, which were focused on peace and security, India has pointed out
that terrorism had complicated the Indo-Pak relationship and urged
Islamabad to 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
Pakitan 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 Rao also said " India and Pakistan must
work together concertedly to eliminate this threat".
Stressing
that peace and security can bring stability in our 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 for 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. By
Naveen Kapoor (ANI)
