Seven years after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, India and Pakistan have agreed to resume structured dialogue between them. The dialogue that was earlier known as Composite Dialogue and later on known as Resumed Dialogue will now be known as the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue. In their joint statement, Ms. Swaraj and Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz “condemned terrorism and resolved to cooperate to eliminate it”. The joint statement also notes that Pakistan had given assurances on an “early completion of the Mumbai trial”.

After talks between Ms. Swaraj and Mr. Aziz which lasted two hours, the two sides tasked Foreign Secretaries of the two countries with formulating a timetable for secretary level talks on all the 10 issues that form the resurrected dialogue process. The declaration of Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue was welcomed by former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Salman Bashir who described the declaration by Ms. Swaraj as a “great development”.

Source: The Hindu

The India-Pakistan Composite Dialogue is rooted in the 1997 SAARC Summit at Male where Prime Ministers I.K. Gujral and Mr. Sharif agreed to create a Composite Dialogue Process (CDP). The CDP survived till 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai led to its suspension.