Pakistan's Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said he is looking forward to the visit of Home Minister P. Chidambaram later this month to Islamabad for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Home Ministers' meeting, and expressed the hope that the two neighbours would jointly root out the menace of terrorism.
“Mr. Chidambaram will be visiting Islamabad soon. I want to know from him what India would want from us and what more steps Pakistan can take in its operations against terrorists. I want both the countries to build more confidence and clear the air on issues like fighting terrorism,” Mr. Qureshi said on Tuesday.
He was talking to Indian journalists on the sidelines of the third summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) here.
Both India and Pakistan must bridge the “trust deficit'' by working together in areas such as enhancing trade ties and increasing flow of tourists, he said.
Visa regime
Mr. Qureshi favoured liberalisation of the visa regime whose spin-offs would generate and improve people to people contacts between the two nations.
“In my view, the climate was vitiated post-Mumbai attack when India took a very strong position of suspending the dialogue process. Both have suffered from the menace of terrorism and we have to fight it collectively. There is no use pointing the finger at each other. In this situation, the net beneficiaries are terrorists. We should not fall in their trap. I would like to discuss with Mr. Chidambaram as to how we can cooperate in strengthening the joint anti-terror mechanism,'' he said.
The conference also provided an opportunity for a brief “pull aside'' meeting between Mr. Qureshi and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who attended the CICA summit as a special envoy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The two Ministers warmly greeted each other and posed for photographs.
Both the Ministers talked about the immense trade potential that exists between Pakistan and India. Mr. Sharma said he was looking forward to meet his Pakistani counterpart to discuss the issues of bilateral trade and commerce.
Mr. Qureshi lauded a recent meeting between Pakistani and Indian businessmen in New Delhi. Mr. Sharma said a delegation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry would visit Pakistan in October to explore ways of further boosting bilateral economic ties.
“Mr. Qureshi thanked our Prime Minister for his wise and sincere approach in meaningful engagement of the two countries. I told him that trust quotient can be increased only if terrorist syndicate is dismantled and a better understanding will help in creating a positive environment of economic engagement and also promote commerce and trade in SAARC region,'' Mr. Sharma told journalists.
