NEW DELHI: Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid has cautioned Pakistan that no substantive progress can be made in bilateral relations if New Delhi's expectations from Islamabad are ignored in bringing the Mumbai terror suspects to justice, Press Trust of India reported on Sunday.
It said Pakistan’s response to India's `wishlist’ with regard to those behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks is `critical’ to substantive movement in the bilateral dialogue.
What Islamabad has done so far about it is ‘not to our satisfaction’, Mr Khurshid told Press Trust of India in an interview, while taking stock of ties between the neighbours in 2012.
Mr Khurshid did not see the allegedly provocative statements made by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik while he was in India recently as a ‘setback’ in the dialogue process.
What is said or what gesture is made is not ‘critical’, he said. “I don't see it as a setback at all. But I do believe and (what) we all believe in this country is that dialogue will move smoothly, faster and in a right direction provided the wishlist lying with Pakistan given by India as far as the Mumbai tragedy is concerned is responded to. That is a critical thing, not what is said, not what gesture is made.
“Ultimately, it is the delivery of the fundamental aspects that are required to be fulfilled...Unless that is done, we will not have substantive movement. And it has not been done to satisfaction,” the minister said.
Asked about the delay in Pakistan granting Most Favoured Nation status to India, Mr Khurshid said India would do whatever needed to be done to persuade them to move on this.
“We believe that it should have been done. We will do whatever needs to be done to persuade them that we should now be able to do it. It is not something which should be delayed indefinitely. It is not something we should just forget that it happened.
“We have to get them back on track. If they have problems, they will certainly express them to us and obviously when it was being negotiated, they must have factored in all the different pulls and pushes, but we would like it to be moved forward and we will certainly persuade them to do so,” the minister said, adding that the issue “is always on the agenda”.