India, Pak vow to carry forward peace process

India and Pakistani foriegn ministers vowed to carry forward the peace process and said that they had 'vested interests' in promoting bilateral ties.

The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan on Sunday vowed to carry forward the peace process as they spoke for the second time in three days, a news report said. India's External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh said both countries had "vested interests" in promoting bilateral ties, Press Trust of India news agency reported.

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"We hold Pakistani leadership in the highest esteem," PTI quoted Singh as telling Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri. The telephone calls followed public exchanges last week in which Kasuri objected to Singh criticizing Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for downgrading the importance of a 1972 peace accord between the two nations.

Sunday's telephone call was at Pakistan's initiative, PTI said. Officials of the two countries will meet June 19-20 to discuss nuclear issues and then their foreign secretaries will hold separate peace talks June 27-28 as part of a wide-ranging dialogue including their dispute over Kashmir.

Singh and Kasuri are also scheduled to meet next month as part of a roadmap for peace set out in January during former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Pakistan. Pakistan and India have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, since independence from Britain in 1947. Kashmir, which is divided between the hostile neighbors, is claimed in its entirety by both.