Pak accuses India of 'shying away' from talks

Saturday August 29, 2009, Islamabad

Pakistan on Saturday accused India of "shying away" from peace talks even though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had acknowledged that dialogue is the only way forward for the two countries.
"If the road forward is dialogue, then what are they shying away for? They should come and sit and talk," Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told a news conference at the Foreign Office in Islamabad.
He pointed out that Prime Minister Singh had "committed to a dialogue with Pakistan" and said "dialogue is the only way forward".
Both countries did not think war is an option for resolving issues as it would be "suicidal" for them, he said.
"When war is no longer an option, what other option do you have? A negotiated settlement and dialogue is the way forward," Qureshi added.
He was responding to questions about the resumption of the bilateral peace process, which was put on hold by India following last year's audacious terror attacks in Mumbai

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"They (India) hesitate on dialogue. They want cooperation (in probing the Mumbai attacks) and give us a dossier. They want progress and then shy away from talks. Both things cannot go together," he said.
He indicated that if talks are not resumed, the agenda would be "handed over to the extremists" and they would determine the future course of events.
Asked about media reports that Prime Minister Singh had said the situation was not conducive for talks with Pakistan, Qureshi shot back: "Then what was (the joint statement of) Sharm El-Sheikh? What was that agreement? If there is no dialogue, where are we going?"
He said India had not yet responded to an invitation extended to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to come to Islamabad for talks.
The proposed meeting between Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir was to have set the agenda for a meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, he said.
Pakistan had no objections to the Foreign Secretaries meeting in a third country, he added. Qureshi also pointed out that New Delhi is yet to respond to Islamabad's request to provide information about threats from Pakistan-based terror groups that Prime Minister Singh had spoken about some time ago.
Pakistan is "willing to engage" India because this had been agreed on by the premiers of the two countries during their meeting at Sharm El-Sheikh last month. "Pakistan has no worries. We are firm on our stance... Normalisation of ties is in the interest of both countries," he said.