Pak ready to reduce trust deficit with India: Qureshi

ISTANBUL - Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said he would be ready to discuss all issues of bilateral importance with his Indian counterpart S.M.Krishna when the latter visits Islamabad on July 15.

Speaking exclusively to ANI TV on the sidelines of a CICA-Asia summit here, Qureshi said:”Anything and everything will be discussed and can be discussed all issues of concern that they (India) would want to raise.”

“They are welcome to raise it,and the issues that we have, we will raise,” he added.

Asked for his comments on the current trust deficit existting between Pakistan and India, Qureshi said: “The idea behind this (foreign ministers’) meeting is to bridge the trust deficit. We have to sit together and work out the confidence building measures that would bridge the trust deficit.”

Last week, Krishna had said the ‘trust deficit’ between India and Pakistan could be reduced only through further dialogue.

Addressing media in Washington on the sidelines of the first India-US Strategic Dialogue, Krishna had said: “There is a trust deficit between our two countries. My visit to Islamabad in July will be in order to address the trust deficit and the trust deficit can be reduced or eliminated only when we keep talking to each other, when we keep meeting each other.”

He also said the decision for his visit to Pakistan was mutually taken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani during the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit held at Thimpu, Bhutan, last month. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)