Dhaka: Ahead of likely talks with his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Mohammad Khan in Dhaka on Monday, Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said his country had done nothing to "adversely impact" the peace process, but if Islamabad wanted the process to move forward it must give a commitment to abandon cross-border terrorism.
"We are engaged in a peace process which is important to both countries and it is very important that in order to allow this process to move forward there must be a commitment to abandoning cross-border terrorism in whatever form it occurs," Saran told reporters on Sunday night.
Saran stressed that despite the Mumbai train bombings that killed over 200 people July 11 and increasing evidence of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba's involvement in it, India had taken "no step to retard or adversely impact" the peace process between the two countries.
People-to-people contact and movement across the border was continuing as normal, he told reporters here. "Our message will be that India and Pakistan need to work together. We are neighbours."
"Let the talks take place, I can't say anything about it now," Saran said when asked whether new dates for the foreign secretary-level talks would be discussed between him and Khan.
Saran and Khan are likely to meet on the sidelines of the SAARC foreign ministers' conference here later in the day.
This will be the first high-level contact between the two countries since India deferred the July 20-21 foreign-secretary level talks in the aftermath of the Mumbai bombings, saying the time was not conducive for a dialogue.
Last week, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan said in a TV interview that he was "willing to talk to whoever is wanting to know the facts" about perpetrators of the deadly Mumbai terror attacks.
India has repeatedly told Pakistan that continuation of the dialogue process between the two countries will depend on what concrete steps Islamabad takes to end cross-border terrorism.
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