India,Pak claim ‘broad meeting of minds’

“Both of us adopted an open and constructive attitude and I am satisfied with the meeting,” said Rao about her meeting with Bashir that lasted 90 minutes. “It has been a good meeting,a useful one,” she said.

Rao said the discussions touched a number of issues of relevance to both the countries and never riveted down to one issue.

Both sides talked about how the dialogue process could be taken forward and both agreed to chart the way forward and work out the best modalities to do that,she said.

“The nature of the relationship between India and Pakistan has been very complex. So one has to be realistic and be aware of the realities,” she said.

Asked what was next,she replied: “You will have to wait and see…In life as in diplomacy ripeness is all. We have to wait for this process to mature and we should be cautiously optimistic because there are many issues that need to be resolved between the two countries.”

“We should have a vision for the future and that is what our PM feels and I believe from what the Pakistan foreign secretary told me — their government is also committed to taking the dialogue with India on all outstanding issues forward in a constructive way.”

Salman Bashir echoed a similar sentiments. “There was a broad meeting of minds. I have every reason to be satisfied. There is a large area of convergence as there are divergences of views and both sides need to work on them,” Bashir told the media on Monday.

Asked about Pakistan’s stand on the 26/11 investigation,Bashir said: “The Pakistan government’s stand is that that any such thing like 26/11 or in any act of terror the perpetrators must be brought to justice. I think we are proceeding accordingly.”

Referring to the Samjhauta blast case,he said: “It is wrong to sort of connote terror with any denomination. That’s my personal view whether it is Hindu or anything. Not fair,therefore,we got to have clarity when we define these issues. Of course,every incident of terrorism is despicable.”

“We condemn it whether it takes place in India,Pakistan or elsewhere. This is a common issue. It is a global issue. It is a regional issue. We have agreed to cooperate to deal with this issue as along with all the other issues,” said Bashir.