MOSCOW: Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, conferred with Mr Andrei Gromyko, Soviet Foreign Minister, within two hours of flying in from Karachi today [Nov 23]. Pakistan officials said the two Foreign Ministers met in the skyscraper Foreign Ministry here. But no details of the talks were available.

Informed sources said earlier Mr Bhutto was likely to discuss Russia’s invitation to president Ayub Khan and Premier Lal Bahadur Shastri to meet at Tashkent in Soviet central Asia. Pakistan is believed to have accepted the invitation and Mr Shastri told the Indian parliament in New Delhi this morning he was prepared to discuss “the totality of Indo-Pakistan relations” with President Ayub.

Mr Bhutto is also expected to complain over Russia’s continuing sale of military supplies to India. The Foreign Minister declined to comment on his four-day visit, except to say he would be discussing Soviet-Pakistan relations. He leaves for Bucharest, Rumania, on Friday. Mr Iqbal Athar, the Pakistan Ambassador, arrived with him from Karachi aboard a scheduled Soviet airliner. The ambassador had been home for consultations.

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies from Rawalpindi,] the Pakistan Government have decided to withdraw the bulk of the staff of Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and the Deputy High Commission in Calcutta because of India’s failure to stop their harassment and maltreatment, it is authoritatively learnt.

According to information available here, the staff of the missions will start returning home on Thursday. The Government of India had been asked to provide facilities for their withdrawal by air and an agreement in this regard has been reached.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2015