India, Pakistan made good progress on economic issues: US

India and Pakistan have made good progress on economic issues during the last 18 months, a US official said today, noting that Washington has always encouraged the two neighbours to improve their relations.

“We encourage both India and Pakistan to continue to strengthen and deepen the dialogue that they have with each other. They”ve made good progress together in the last 18 months on economic issues, and we”re hopeful that that kind of increasing trust can be built on in other areas,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters.

She was responding to questions on the announcement that the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan would meet in the first week of July.

Nuland said the US has always supported Indian effort to bring to justice those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attack.

“We obviously have long supported and called for the arrest and prosecution and conviction of all of those responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks because we lost six of our own, as you know,” she said.