Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Parneet Kaur says the only way forward Pak-India talks and as responsible people they should go further up (from the bureaucratic level) but it was difficult to say how and when the talks would be taken further up.

“It has been the initiative of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that India was willing to take an extra mile. He means it. We simply cannot wish our geography away. For prosperity in Asia, we have to have good relations which would be good for economy as well. Of course, the only way forward is talks but I cannot now say, when or how, would the thread be taken up from where the two foreign secretaries left,” Parneet Kaur said.

“Cooperate Development, Peace and Security: Women Guiding the Destiny of South Asia,” she was addressing a special session of a seminar in Chandigarh.

The minister expressed her ignorance when asked why when Pakistanis filling visa forms, they had to fill in a “religion” column specially when India professed that it was a secular state. She was frank to admit the external affairs ministry was besieged with visa requests, especially from Pakistan and that “this was a problem”. But looking ahead, she said if the Berlin Wall could come down, maybe in the future Saarc would adopt the EU model where one visa would allow travel in all Saarc countries.