US encourages India and Pak to get back to dialogue

The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, says the India-Pakistan talks, stalled since the Mumbai terror attacks, hold a lot of promise. The two countries, she feels, had made progress in sorting through some of the longstanding difficulties, most particularly the status of Kashmir.

The Obama Administration encourages India and Pakistan to get back into dialogue process which was halted by the Mumbai terrorist attack, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

“We are encouraging them (India and Pakistan) to get back into dialogue. We think that (dialogue) is important. But with respect to any resolution, that's up to them,” Ms. Clinton told the BBC in an interview, the transcripts of which was released by the State Department here.

Ms. Clinton was responding to a question if the Administration is looking at tackling the issue of Kashmir between the two countries.

“Well, we have encouraged both countries to resume a dialogue that they were engaged in which came to a halt and yet holds a lot of promise.

They had made progress, I am told, in sorting through some of the longstanding difficulties they face, and most particularly the status of Kashmir,” she said.

“But it is clear that any solution has to come from the two countries themselves,” Ms. Clinton said.