Islamabad: The Indian High Commissioner designate to Pakistan, TCA Raghavan, on Wednesday hoped that the peace process between the two countries will resume soon. Talking to reporters after the Iftar dinner hosted by acting Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay here, he said: "We hope that the dialogue process will start very soon."
He said that the two prime ministers were expected to meet on the sidelines of UN annual summit in September, but "the time and date has not been decided as yet". Rejecting the idea that Indus water treaty was "redundant," Raghavan said it can help both sides solve water-related issues.
This was Raghavan's first interaction with the media in Islamabad since arriving here earlier this month during which he stressed that "we endeavor to develop our relations both at government-to-government level and people-to-people level."
The high commissioner designate has not formally taken charge because President Asif Ali Zardari is out of the country and he has not been able to present his credentials. The relations between the two neighbours were badly hit after the 2008 Mumbai attacks which killed at least 166 people, resulting in the suspension of the five-year old composite dialogue process.
There have been positive signals from both sides after May 11 elections in Pakistan in which Nawaz Sharif returned to power. Since then, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special envoy SK Lamba has paid the Pakistan prime minister a visit in Lahore.
Sharif also sent his pointman for back channel diplomacy with India, former foreign secretary Shehryar Khan, to New Delhi to deliver a special letter to the Indian Prime
Minister.
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