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Indian, Pakistan Foreign Ministers Talk to Ease Tension
Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and his Indian counterpart Jaswant Singh spoke by telephone on Sunday in a bid to ease tensions that have risen following the terrorist strikes on the United States last week.
The two ministers exchanged their views about the situation in the region during their ten-minute conversation, a spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry told the media here.
This is their first direct contact since last July when Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf held a two-day summit in India's ancient city of Agra.
Singh asked Satter to convey to President Musharraf that India had "no intention to add to the current complexities that the government and the people of Pakistan are faced with," the spokesperson said.
Sattar assured Singh that Pakistan was ready to "fully cooperate" with the world community in combating terrorism and expressed disappointment at the "barrage of propaganda" emanating from New Delhi.
A report from Islamabad quoted Pakistani foreign office spokesman Riaz Mohammad Khan as saying that the telephonic contact was aimed at easing tension that has risen in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the U.S.
On Friday, the Indian minister virtually ruled out talks with Pakistan in the near future due to the current situation, which, he said, had "transformed beyond recognition" following the terrorist strikes.
Emerging from a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, Singh told the media in a press conference that no meeting between the leaders of the two countries was scheduled at the moment.
Meanwhile, Singh spoke to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Saturday over telephone as part of India's consultations to assess the developments of the terrorist strikes.
Singh has already contacted with Secretary General of the Arab League Amra Moussa and his counterparts from U.S., Britain, Egypt, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
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