30 October 2004	Saturday	15 Ramazan 1425

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is likely to have his first meeting with Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Nov 23 in New Delhi, Dawn learnt through diplomatic sources on Friday.

According to the present plan, the prime minister would arrive in New Delhi on Nov 22 on a two-day visit. Confirming the dates, informed sources in Indian and Pakistani official quarters said the usual practice is that the announcement is made a week in advance.

The prime minister's visit to India will be part of his planned tour of six South Asian capitals next month as the outgoing chairperson of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc).

Although his visit is primarily in the Saarc context, it acquires special significance in the backdrop of the ongoing Indo-Pakistan peace process. This will be the first high-level political contact between Pakistan and India after President Gen Pervez Musharraf's meeting with the Indian Prime Minister in New York on Sept 24.

Notably it will take place ahead of the next round of Indo- Pakistan talks on a series of confidence building measures that start from Nov 29 and foreign secretaries-level talks on Jammu and Kashmir and peace and security in December.

During his stay in Delhi, the prime minister will also meet Indian President Abdul Kalam and the Congress Party President Mrs Sonia Gandhi. A meeting with former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is also expected.

When Mr Vajpayee came to attend the 12th Saarc Summit conference here in January, Mr Shaukat Aziz, the then federal finance minister, was appointed as his minister-in- waiting.