Pakistan to set its agenda Wednesday for talks with India
By IANSTuesday, February 9, 2010
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will set its agenda for the proposed foreign secretary-level talks with India at a high-level meeting Wednesday chaired by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a media report Tuesday said.
Apart from the agenda, the meeting would also consider the dates of Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir’s visit to India and other foreign policy issues relating to India, Online news agency reported, quoting diplomatic sources.
Pakistan is stressing that the talks should not be limited to terrorism and the composite dialogue process should be resumed
from where it was frozen in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. It also wants that the two countries should hold talks on Kashmir, Siachen, river waters, Sir Creek and other issues, the agency added.
Officials belonging to the interior and defence ministries, as also the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, would be those attending the meeting.
Pakistan High Commissioner Shahid Malik, who is already here with India’s proposal of holding the talks either on Feb 18 or Feb 25, would brief the meeting.
Online separately reported that Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has decided to take parliament and the national political leadership on board on the proposed talks.
Quoting sources in the Prime Minister House, the agency said that Gilani would also deliver a policy statement during the ongoing session of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on Pakistan’s stance on the talks.
