India, Pakistan MPs pitch for revival of talks

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 12

India-Pakistan parliamentarians today hoped the governments on either side would pay heed to the voices both from the civil society and elected representatives to improve bilateral relations, eventually leading to revival of the stalled dialogue process.

“MPs recognised that through the creation of enabling circumstances, official talks need to be revived and sustained as a continuous process. Dialogue, not armed conflict, was deemed to be the only way forward. There is, therefore, need to jointly strive more effectively to make bilateralism more result-oriented,” a joint statement noted at the conclusion of the two-day sixth round of India-Pakistan Parliamentarians Dialogue here.

The conclusion was that existing official and non-official modes should be used to facilitate the resumption of dialogue on terms that are mutually acceptable and these include initiating “talks about talks” process at the governmental level to set the stage for the resumption of the formal dialogue.