New Delhi, July 27, 2011, India and Pakistan’s foreign ministers decided to keep talking in future between both countries, Today they have open a new chapter in relations on Wednesday after their first talks in a year attempted to breath fresh life into the arch-rivals’ stop-start peace process.

In an upbeat assessment after their meeting, foreign minister SM Krishna said ties were back “on the right track,” while his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar spoke of a “new era” of cooperation.

There was little in the way of substantive agreements to back up the general mood of optimism, with a joint statement envisaging a general bilateral effort to combat terrorism, increase trade and keep the peace dialogue going.

India suspended contacts with Pakistan after the 2008 Mumbai attacks which it blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

The peace process has struggled to gain any real traction since its formal resumption earlier this year in an atmosphere of mutual recrimination and mistrust.
“We have some distance to travel, but with an open mind and a constructive approach I am sure we can reach our desired destination of having a friendly and cooperative relationship,” Krishna said.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them triggered by their territorial dispute over Kashmir, which remains a core issue and major hurdle in any future comprehensive peace deal.

In her remarks to the reporters, Khar said there had been “a mindset change” that had turned the resumed peace dialogue into an “uninterrupted and uninterruptable” process.

“A new generation of Indians and Pakistanis will see a relationship that will hopefully be much different from the one that has been experienced in the last two decades,” she said.

Khar, Pakistan’s first female foreign minister, was appointed last week and, at just 34 years of age, some had questioned whether she was experienced enough to handle one of the world’s most fraught cross-border relationships.