NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD, May 27: The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan are to hold bilateral discussions, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's pending visit to Islamabad, on the sidelines of a two-day Asia-Europe meeting starting in Hamburg on Monday, official sources said.
They said Mr Pranab Mukherjee and Mr Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri would most likely meet on Monday when they are expected to take a close look at the progress — or lack of it — on the issues of troop reduction in Siachen and agreeing on their maritime boundary in the Sir Creek.
Both the issues are deemed to have been ripe for a solution for some time now, but after the last round of official talks on Siachen the news from Pakistani side was that it was disappointed with the outcome.
Informed sources said that both sides were now keen to explore all the possibilities to get Dr Singh to pay a much delayed visit to Islamabad. The UPA government headed by Dr Singh has claimed its Pakistan policy as a major success during a three-year term it completed last week. It has another two years to sustain the dialogue before the next elections, to make its claim electorally worthwhile.
A high profile visit with something positive to show for it has been a necessary condition for Dr Singh. He however faces stiff opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party to his back-channel discussions with Pakistan on Kashmir. It is being seen as equally vital for President Gen Pervez Musharraf to get the Indian prime minister to pay the visit, as that would go a long way in stabilising his administration against a growing disenchantment of the people with his regime.
Pakistani officials said Mr Kasuri would probably reaffirm a standing invitation to the Indian prime minister. And that would eventually lead to a discussion on what all is required from both sides for the visit to happen.
This is the first time that India and Pakistan will be attending the ministerial-level meeting of the informal group of Asian and European countries, after they were admitted into ASEM last year along with Mongolia and Asean secretariat. The last meeting of the two foreign ministers was held during the Saarc summit in April.
For India, there is another major issue at stake, that of its quest for intra-Saarc connectivity at various levels. Earlier this week experts, officials and businessmen met in Dhaka to discuss this and urged the South Asian leaders to change their mindset to derive maximum benefit from the regional potentials.
They said the political will was vital for establishing a dynamic economic integration among the members of the expanded regional forum.
"Economic cooperation among the south Asian nations is not a new phenomenon. The quest of economic integration, however, remained inhibited by the lack of political courage and will," said Mainul Hosein, the law adviser to Bangladesh's interim administration, inaugurating a seminar on Saarc Economic Connectivity: Post Delhi Declaration Perspective.
Mr Kasuri is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with nine key counterparts from Asian and European countries on the sidelines of the Hamburg meeting.
According to informed sources, he has separate meetings planned with foreign ministers of China, Japan, France, Luxemburg, Sweden, Singapore and Estonia.
Talks with EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner and EU High Representative Javier Solana are also on the cards. The controversial Emma Nicholson Report on Kashmir adopted by the European Parliament on May 24 would be high on the agenda during his meetings with the EU representatives, the sources said.
“The foreign minister will convey Pakistan’s disappointment and concern at the numerous factual inaccuracies and distortions still contained in the report.
He will also underscore that the report does not positively contribute to efforts for a just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” a senior official told Dawn.
At the meetings, Mr Kasuri will be assisted by his director-general Khalid Mahmud, director-general (East Asia Pacific) Amjad Sial, additional foreign secretary (Afghanistan & ECO) Khalid Khattak and Pakistan’s ambassador to the EU, Saeed Khalid.
