India hopes Pak will address its vital concerns

The Minister was addressing a function release the latest edition of the ‘Indian National Security’.

“On our part,we shall always be ready to address Pakistan’s concerns as long as the mechanism is dialogue,” he added.

Krishna said dialogue has been started with Pakistan to resolve all the outstanding issue between the two sides in spirit of “openness”.

“With Pakistan,we have pursued the path of dialogue to reduce the trust deficit and to resolve all outstanding issues in a spirit of openness and in hope that we can build a better future for the people of two countries,” he added.

Krishna said the Home Secretaries of the two countries have already held talks and it would be followed by the talks between their Commerce Secretaries in Islamabad.

“There will be a series of other meetings,leading to the meetings of Foreign Secretaries,and Foreign Minister of the two countries,” he added.

The Minister said during the meeting of the two Prime Ministers in Mohali,wide-ranging conversations were held between the two sides.

Observing that terrorism was the “single biggest challenge” in India’s external environment,Krishna said post 26/11,India has on one hand sought to improve its counter terrorism capabilities,and on the other reached out to the world to stress on the need for bringing to justice all those responsible for the attacks.

On China,Krishna said India and China have agreed “in principle” to establish a working mechanism for consultation and coordination of border affairs.

“This will handle important border affairs relating to maintaining peace and tranquillity. We would hope that this mechanism would allow the two countries to take their relationship in a positive direction,” he added.