Pakistan and India to hold first talks in two years
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Your support makes all the difference.India and Pakistan are to hold their first talks in almost two years, aimed at ending 50 years of war and acrimony between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
India's Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said he was restoring civil aviation links that were broken last year and would appoint a new ambassador to Pakistan. Pakistan agreed to restore full diplomatic ties with India.
Mr Vajpayee, 78 and in poor health, has indicated that he would like to leave a legacy of peace between the neighbours. He told the Indian parliament: "This round of talks will be decisive, and at least for my life, these will be the last. We are committed to the improvement of relations with Pakistan and we are willing to grasp every opportunity for doing so."
The two countries came close to war last year after India blamed Pakistan for an attack by Islamic militants on the Indian parliament in December 2001. Pakistan denied involvement. Tensions eased after intense diplomacy by the United States and Britain. Richard Armitage, the US Deputy Secretary of State, is to visit the region next week.
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, said: "This is very, very promising, at a time when people were beginning to wonder whether or not we were going back up on the slope of potential conflict, a conflict of the kind we feared last year."
Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Khursheed Kasuri, welcomed India's decision to appoint an ambassador to Islamabad and said Pakistan would reciprocate.
Last week, Mr Vajpayee conditionally offered talks with Pakistan on the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan's President, General Pervez Musharraf, expressed scepticism at the time.Pakistan's Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said the talks would be between Mr Vajpayee and his counterpart in Pakistan – the Prime Minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
Mr Vajpayee did not directly answer Indian MPs' questions about whether he was changing India's policy of not holding talks with Pakistan until Islamic militants stop crossing the frontier to launch attacks in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.
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