Pakistan, India Agree to Resume Peace Negotiations

Pakistan and India agreed Saturday to restart peace talks suspended since train bombings killed about 200 people in Mumbai in July, part of a wave of attacks India blames on Pakistan-based militants.

Describing their meeting as a breakthrough for peace, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed that their foreign secretaries would pursue the talks and said Singh had accepted an invitation to go to Pakistan.

Their joint statement said they had a “cordial, frank exchange of views on all aspects of India and Pakistan relations” and they “strongly condemn all acts of terrorism.”

“I look forward to a purposeful visit at a time to be determined through diplomatic channels,” Singh said after the leaders reached agreement Saturday morning on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Havana.

“I am very happy,” Musharraf said. “It’s very good.”

The breakthrough came when the two sides agreed to set up a working group to identify and stop terrorists, said Shivshankar Menon, who becomes India’s foreign secretary next month.

India already has such anti-terrorism groups with more than 20 countries, but working with Pakistan in such a way is unprecedented, he said.

“We’re working at eliminating the trust deficit,” Menon said. “This is a new step, a new way.”

India has been hit by a series of terrorist bombings in the last year, which it blames on Islamic militants based in Pakistan.