Bishkek: Even as ground appears to be prepared for talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York later this month, India underlined that a conducive atmosphere was essential for the meeting.
Ahead of the planned talks, Pakistan has informed India that it has named a new prosecutor for the much-delayed Mumbai attack trial and will send a judicial commission on September 23 to cross-examine key Indian witnesses, meeting New Delhi's demand to some extent for substantive progress in the probe.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday said Sartaj Aziz, Advisor to the Pakistani Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, had informed him about these developments during an informal chat in the Kyrgyzstan capital Thursday night.
Aziz said he had a good meeting with Khurshid and "diplomatic channels will continue to facilitate talks" between the two prime ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this month in New York.
Khurshid and Aziz are here for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.
"We expected and hoped that the prosecutor would be soon appointed - the previous prosecutor was assassinated and also that the evidence collected by the judicial commission can be made available to the (Pakistani) trial court," said Khurshid, who shared a table with Aziz at an official dinner.
Khurshid also said that Aziz told him that the judicial panel would travel to India on September 23.
"We welcome that and we welcome the appointment of the prosecutor," he told reporters.
"And we genuinely, honestly hope that now things can proceed faster and that we would see through court proceedings something substantive happening."
Khurshid said he conveyed to Aziz that a possible meeting between the two prime ministers will require a conducive atmosphere and delivery for its to materialise.
This is a position reiterated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said.
Prime Minister Singh last Saturday said he will have to factor in "certain harsh realities" on the ground relating to terrorism and progress in Mumbai attack probe before arriving at a "final decision" on meeting Sharif.
"We told him (Aziz) that in view of the wish of the people for positive talks, there has to be a conducive atmosphere.
Whenever a high-level talk process is on, the atmosphere should be good," Khurshid said.
Stressing the need for peace along the Indo-Pak border, Khurshid said the ceasefire on the Line of Control(LoC) must be respected.
"That is also part of the atmosphere. If there is no peace and tranquility on the border and LoC, then all our efforts go waste frankly," he said.
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