PM push laid the groundwork for talks resumption with Pak

What made matters easier was that the two Foreign Secretaries have been in touch in the past few months,and as a source said,they spoke at least twice in the past two months on how to unlock the situation. With Menon as the new NSA,the PM had already given a clear signal on his intention to make Pakistan his key foreign policy priority. This was reflected in the India-Pakistan Sharm-el Sheikh joint statement Singh and Menon were the principal architects from the Indian side in which it was made clear that dialogue is the only way forward.

It has been now decided that while India will articulate its core concern of terrorism,it will also raise the issues of bilateral importance including humanitarian issues pertaining to exchange of prisoners,confidence-building measures as well as talk on the impending visits by dignitaries from Pakistan. Pakistans Chief Election Commissioner Justice retired Hamid Ali Mirzas visit,cancelled after the IPL controversy,will also likely to be discussed during the meeting between the two Foreign Secretaries.

However,New Delhi is cautious and is not calling the talks resumption of the Composite Dialogue process. Four rounds of Composite Dialogue had been completed,and the fifth round had been launched in July 2008 but the talks were put on pause as a result of the Mumbai terror attacks. The dominant view in New Delhi,shared by Singh and Menon,was that Pakistan has taken some steps,since there is a criminal trial going on against the Mumbai attack accused. What has given New Delhi confidence is the fact that Pakistan government lawyers have told the court that Pakistan has 161 witnesses and incriminating evidence to prove involvement of Lashkar-e-Toiba operations chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects in the attacks case.

The incriminating evidence includes the confessional statement of Amir Ajmal Kasab,which Special Public Prosecutor Malik Rab Nawaz Noon told the Pakistani court was received through proper government-to-government channels and that Pakistan got Kasabs statement translated by head of the Hindi Department of the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad and it was legally tenable.

Though New Delhi has been encouraged by these positive steps,it still feels that Islamabad needs to do more since it still has anti-India terrorist infrastructure running on Pakistan soil. New Delhi still feels that for any meaningful dialogue to succeed,Pakistan will have to be sensitive and conscious of its responsibility in preventing any future attacks.

Sources said the decision to talk with Islamabad was taken by Singh as a practical and pragmatic approach. Not communicating with Islamabad,New Delhi was beginning to feel,was making the two neighbours more and more distant and this was Indias idea of engaging with Pakistan and get the core concerns on terrorism addressed.

Sherpa Rao headed for the Netherlands

NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is going to the Netherlands on Monday as Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs sherpa for a preparatory meeting of the global summit on nuclear security,to be held in US in April.

In diplomatic jargon,a Sherpa is an official who does the negotiations and groundwork for the head of state or government in the lead up to a summit. It was made popular by the G-8 summit of the developed economies and later the G-20 summit.

The nuclear security summit,slated to be held on April 12-13,is being touted as US President Barack Obamas grand meeting on non-proliferation,assumes greater significance as it precedes the NPT Review Conference to be held in May. India is being pressed by the world to sign the NPT and the issue is expected to figure at the meet. ENS