Alwaght-Indian and Pakistani officials met for the first time at Attari border near Amritsar on Thursday after the recent deadly border skirmishes which ignited tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
"Commitment to fulfill a dream!" is how Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar referred to the crucial dialogue on Twitter, once the meet kicked off.
"Talks begin between India and Pakistan to discuss and finalize the modalities for the Kartarpur Corridor, that will facilitate Indian pilgrims to visit the holy shrine of Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur," he added.
The meeting started after the arrival of the Pakistani delegation via the Attari-Wagah joint check post land border. The meeting was held at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari on the Indian side.
Officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), National High Authority of India and other related departments represent the Indian side at the talks.
While, Pakistan has sent an 18-member team headed by its Foreign Office's Director-General of South Asia, Muhammad Faisal, who is also the Foreign Office spokesperson.
India has made it clear that the meeting was in no way a resumption of a bilateral dialogue.
"It is not any resumption of bilateral talks, let me make it very clear that it is not in any way a resumption of a bilateral dialogue," the MEA spokesperson said earlier.
Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal, while talking to the press before leaving for India, expressed his confidence that the dialogue on corridor could be a step forward in the right direction in the current vitiated situation from conflict to cooperation, animosity to peace and enmity to friendship.
Tension in the region has been running high after a terrorist bomb attack in Pulawama in Indian-administered Kashmir last month killed at least 40 Indian troops.
The tensions reached a peak on February 26, when India said it had conducted “pre-emptive” airstrikes against what it described as a militant training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot.
Days later, the Pakistani military captured an Indian pilot after shooting down his MiG-21 fighter jet, which Islamabad said had violated Pakistani airspace.
New Delhi has long accused Islamabad of training and arming fighters and helping them infiltrate the heavily militarized Line of Control (LoC) that separates the two sides in the region, a charge Islamabad denies.
India has about 500,000 soldiers in the part of Kashmir it controls, where armed groups are fighting for independence or a merger with Pakistan.
