Pranab Mukherjee winds up Pakistan visit

Says issues between India and Pakistan cannot be resolved overnight.

Winding up a two-day visit to Pakistan with a trip to the ancient city of Taxila, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said commonality of heritage could help the two countries resolve their "present crisis in a spirit of understanding and amity" but ruled out any redrawing of borders.

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Mukherjee, who also met a cross-section of political leaders, underlined that the issues between India and Pakistan, including Jammu and Kashmir, cannot be resolved overnight and will have to be addressed in a calibrated manner.

"We share common heritage, we share common culture and this commonality brings us together to resolve the present crisis in the spirit of understanding and amity," Mukherjee told journalists after tracing history by visiting Taxila ruins and museum about 30 kms from Islamabad.

The minister was in Pakistan to invite Pakistan Prime Minister Saukat Aziz for 14th SAARC Summit to be held in April and review composite dialogue with Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri during which the two sides agreed on a number of initiatives to push the bilateral relations forward.

"It reminds that there is continuity from past to present and if we do not forget that continuity, perhaps we may find solutions to present complex problems," said the minister, who was briefed by senior officials of the Pakistan's Archaeology Department about the 6th century site during his over an hour-long round.