India, Pak foreign ministers to meet on September 27

Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will meet in New York on September 27, when Islamabad’s commitment and action against terror emanating from its soil will come under review.

Pakistan’s action against perpetrators of last year’s terror attacks on Mumbai will top the agenda of the meeting, which will take place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the first high-level contact between the two countries after the meeting of the prime ministers of the two countries in Egypt in July.

To prepare ground for the meeting, foreign secretaries of both countries will meet on September 26, during which Salman Bashir will discuss with his Indian counterpart, Nirupama Rao, all issues between the two countries, including terrorism and the “core issue” of Kashmir.

“The foreign secretaries’ meeting is being held in accordance with the decisions made during the talks between the prime ministers of Pakistan and India at Sharm el-Sheikh in July,” Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said.

“All the issues between the two countries, including terrorism and the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir, will be discussed in these meetings,” he told state-run APP, when asked about the agenda for the two meetings.

While Pakistan has been asking India to resume the stalled peace process, New Delhi maintains that any meaningful dialogue with Islamabad can only be based on fulfilment of its commitment not to allow its territory to be used for terrorist activities against it.

“The foreign ministers will meet to discuss the agenda prepared by the two foreign secretaries,” Bashir said.

He expressed the hope that these meetings will pave the way for the formal resumption of the stalled peace process between the two countries. The meeting is a follow-up of the Summit meeting between Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt on July 16.