Rao, Qureshi to meet in Thimphu-10 Jan 2011

Rao, Qureshi to meet in Thimphu

Ashwani Talwar

Express News Service

(GOOD TO SEE PEOPLE'S FOCUS SHIFTED ON NORTH EAST AS EVEN BJP'S NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING WAS HELD THERE.I HOPE THEIR PROBLEMS AND BEAUTY GET HIGHLIGHTED AND GET NOTICED BY LEADERS OF DIFFERENT PARTIES,STATES,EVEN COUNTRIES AND IT GET SOLUTION AND PRAISE!!!.....VIBHA TAILANG)

First Published : 10 Jan 2011 04:19:50 AM IST
Last Updated : 10 Jan 2011 09:38:58 AM IST

NEW DELHI: India on Sunday indicated that the stalled talks to revive the dialogue process with Islamabad was set to begin soon. The foreign secretaries of the two countries would meet in Thimphu, the Bhutan capital, early next month. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is likely to meet her Pakistani counterpart in Thimphu on the sidelines of the SAARC Standing Committee meeting, External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said. Islamabad’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit has also confirmed that a meeting between Nirupama and Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir will take place in Thimphu.

This could set the stage for the meeting at the level of the two foreign ministers. India has already extended an invitation to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to visit Delhi: it is expected to take place the first quarter of this year. The Pakistan Foreign Office has said it is waiting for the outcome of the Thimphu meeting to take ‘’a final decision’’ on Qureshi’s visit. The SAARC standing committee, made of foreign secretaries from the eight-member countries, is meeting in Thimphu on February 6 and 7. The India-Pakistan foreign secretaries are likely to meet on its margins. India froze the Composite Dialogue between the two countries after Pakistani terrorists struck in Mumbai in 2008. Last July, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna travelled to Islamabad for a meeting with Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. But that meeting ended amid differences. Pakistan was keen that the focus should remain on Kashmir; India’s priority was cross-border terrorism. While Pakistan wanted the format to be close to the suspended Composite Dialogue process, Delhi wanted incremental steps depending on the progress that Pakistan made in acting against anti-India terror launched from its territory.