NEW DELHI, April 19: India on Wednesday said a peace initiative launched more than two years ago to improve ties with Pakistan and resolve the dispute over Kashmir had not failed or lost momentum.

“The peace process has not failed or slowed down,” Indian defence minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in the eastern city of Kolkata, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

“It cannot be switched on and off. It is a continuing process. It is taking time, just as in many other parts of the world. We need not be disheartened,” he said.

Pakistan and India have been engaged in a slow-moving peace process since January 2004. Although contacts between politicians, people and traders have picked up, the Kashmir dispute has yet to be addressed.

A bus service connecting the two regions of Kashmir was the first major fruit of the peace process between the two nations.—Reuters