'Indo-Pak talks shouldn't be judged as 2+2=4'

With India and Pakistan engaging in war of words post-July 15 parleys between their Foreign Ministers, Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Sunday tweeted that the talks should not be judged "mathematically like 2+2=4" but should be seen as a "positive step".

"It is time for exchange of hearts. Let us sow seeds of love and peace, so that future generations have only the option to reap love, and noting but love....Let us save our future generations from the disease of hate and terrorism," Malik, who has nearly 3,500 followers, said in his latest Twitter posting.

His soothing comments came amid exchange of barbs between External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi following their meeting on Thursday last.

Malik, who had a meeting with Home Minister P Chidambaram on the margins of the SAARC Interior Ministers' conference here last month, said that they both "will move forward in terms of delivery of commitments based on what we agreed."

"The roadmap of commitment and performance between me and Mr Chidambaram is fully intact," he said in his message posted on the social networking website.

"Pak-India talks should not be judged mathematically like 2+2=4 but be assessed with past political and diplomatic rival history of two countries in view," Malik said.

He said: "We should be happy that Pakistan and India are now at least interacting on the core issues. Hence meeting between the two FMs should be viewed as a positive step."