Efforts underway to resume talks with India, says Pak FO

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Qazi M. Khalilullah on Thursday said that the dialogue process with India has not resumed as yet, but efforts were underway to resume the talks, as "good ties with neighbours are a cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy".

Relations between India and Pakistan have been complex due to a number of historical and political events. Relations between the two states have been defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947, the Kashmir conflict and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations. Consequently, even though the two South Asian nations share linguistic, cultural, geographic, and economic links, their relationship has been plagued by hostility and suspicion.

Talks were to be held at the level of foreign secretaries in Islamabad in August last year, but were cancelled by the Indian Government after Pakistan's envoy to India Abdul Basit met with Kashmiri separatist leaders in New Delhi a couple of days before the official engagement was to take place.

New Delhi had then said that Islamabad had to make a choice between engaging with the legitimate representatives of India or with separatists. The Pakistan Government, on the other hand, blamed New Delhi for sending the bilateral dialogue process backward with their hardline stance, and described its meetings with Kashmiri leaders as par for the course, and not unusual before important bilateral talks.