UN chief gives India, Pakistan a pat on their back, hails talks

United Nations: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday welcomed the recent “constructive” talks between the Indo-Pak foreign ministers and encouraged the two countries to resolve their outstanding issues through dialogue in the interest of the regional security. [caption id=“attachment_50937” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The CBMs included relaxation of restrictions on trade and travel between the two nuclear-armed countries. B Mathur/Reuters”]  [/caption] The UN Secretary General “welcomes the recent constructive discussions between the two foreign ministers” in New Delhi, his office said on Friday. “As he has done on occasions in the past, the Secretary General encourages the two countries to resolve their outstanding issues through dialogue in the interest of the peoples of the two countries and regional security,” it said. Ban’s statement follows the July 27 talks between external affairs minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar in New Delhi during which the two sides announced new Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). The CBMs included increasing cross-LoC trading days and expanding travel to include tourism and religious aspects, apart from relaxing permit conditions for travel by people of Jammu and Kashmir to the other side of LoC by having a system of six-month multiple entry. PTI