From rxpgnews.com
Manmohan to meet Pakistan's PM Wednesday
By IANS,
Mar 30, 2007 - 8:14:31 PM
New Delhi, March 30 - India and Pakistan will hold talks on the sidelines of the SAARC summit Wednesday on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, including terrorism and Jammu and Kashmir.
A series of bilateral meetings between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leaders of seven South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation - have been scheduled over three days starting Monday.
Manmohan Singh will meet his Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz at his 7 Race Course residence and discuss an entire range of bilateral relationship.
Ways to make the recently-launched anti-terror joint mechanism effective and advancing solutions to the disputes over Siachen glacier and Sir Creek marshland will figure prominently in the talks, sources told IANS.
Manmohan Singh will also meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Wednesday and discuss the escalating violence in the island nation in the aftermath of the strike by an LTTE aircraft on a Sri Lankan Air Force base. He also meets Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom the same day.
Bilateral meetings with Nepal's Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Bhutan's Prime Minister Khandu Wangchuk, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and chief advisor to the interim administration Fakhruddin Ahmed have been scheduled for Monday.
The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea will call on Manmohan Singh Tuesday.
The ministers will attend the meeting of the council of ministers Monday as observers.
Foreign secretaries of SAARC begin their two-day meeting Saturday to prepare the agenda for the summit, which will focus on Terrorism, trade and transit.
The 33rd standing committee of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation - follows the meeting of the programme committee that was held Friday.
Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan arrived here Friday evening along with senior foreign ministry officials.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will hold talks with Khan on the sidelines of the standing committee on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues and pick up the threads from when they last met in Islamabad over a fortnight ago.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri arrives here Saturday, three days before the two-day SAARC summit starts.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Kasuri are expected to have a meeting.
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