Alwaght-India’s Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyan Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhry have held talks in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, to reduce tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, according to Press
The Tuesday meeting was the first high-level get-together by officials from the two states since negotiations broke down between New Delhi and Islamabad last year .
Jaishankar arrived in the Pakistan capital early on Tuesday for a two-day visit aimed at easing the rivals’ many disputes .
Pakistani Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said the talks would address differences .
“I wouldn’t like to speculate, but naturally the two secretaries will also discuss bilateral relations,” said Aslam, adding, “We hope that this process can lead to the resumption of the Composite Dialogue .”
Aslam was referring to a series of talks aimed at addressing multiple issues between the two states, including Kashmir, cross-border terrorism, border and water issues .
Previous talks between the two sides have failed to make progress in mending differences .
Last year, however, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the oath taking of his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, in a sign of progress .
Tensions between the neighbors have resulted in both armies firing across their disputed border in the region of Kashmir several times in the past year, leaving dozens of people dead from both sides .
Kashmir lies at the heart of more than 67 years of hostility between India and Pakistan. Both countries claim the region in full but each has control only over a section of the territory. Over the past two decades, the conflict in Kashmir has left thousands of people dead .
