Updated at: 1459 PST, Wednesday, September 29, 2010
NEW DELHI: India's foreign minister on Wednesday invited his Pakistani counterpart to attend the Commonwealth Games which open this weekend, saying it would give them a chance to pursue dialogue.
"Mr (Shah Mehmood) Qureshi is most welcome to come and witness some of the Games and there again give us a chance to continue the dialogue," Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna told NDTV news channel.
He issued the invitation in New York where he was attending a meeting of the UN General Assembly along with Qureshi.
The Pakistani foreign minister took aim at India with a speech Tuesday at the UN meeting, insisting his government wanted peace but branding India's rule of disputed Kashmir as "oppression."
Krishna called Qureshi's comments "unacceptable."
Kashmir, a Himalayan territory with a Muslim majority but a sizeable Hindu minority, has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since independence and triggered two full-fledged wars.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have been seeking to boost relations which soured after the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead and derailed a multi-year peace process.
Krishna's invitation to Qureshi came a day after Pakistan's athletes rejected accommodation provided for them at the crisis-hit Games village as an unsatisfactory and warned organisers to make improvements or provide alternative accommodation.
Games organisers are racing against time to bring facilities up to international standards for the Oct 3-14 multinational sporting event. |
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