ISLAMABAD, 9 September 2003 — The foreign ministers of rival neighbors Pakistan and India will meet later this month in New York, a Pakistani official said yesterday.

Pakistan’s Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri and India’s Yashwant Sinha will meet at two South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) ministerial meetings in the last week of September, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said.

“They will meet twice in New York at the two SAARC meetings,” Khan told AFP.

A meeting between the Pakistani and Indian foreign ministers would be the first since the nuclear-capable enemies came close to war last year.

However, bilateral Pakistani-Indian issues were not on the agenda.

“They are meeting within the context of a SAARC forum. Not on bilateral issues,” Khan said.

The SAARC meetings are due to be held within days of the United Nations General Assembly session on Sept. 24 and 25, which will be addressed by both Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

There has been no formal dialogue between the neighbors since July 2001, when Musharraf met Vajpayee in India’s ancient city of Agra.

The two are not expected to meet again until the next SAARC summit in Islamabad from Jan. 4 to 6. Vajpayee has said he will attend.

Starting this week, Kasuri will visit the six other members of the seven-member forum, including India, to personally deliver invitations to the summit, Khan said.

Kasuri will visit Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka this week, and India, the Maldives and Bhutan on a second trip at a later date, Khan told AFP.

Pakistan is hosting the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit from Jan. 4-6 in its capital Islamabad.

Kasuri will head to Dhaka today then on to Katmandu and Colombo “to deliver invitations for the SAARC summit,” Khan said.

“The minister will deliver the invitations to the leaders of the three countries on behalf of Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali,” Khan said.

Kasuri will arrive in Nepal on Sept. 12 where he will hand over the invitation to Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa.

From Sept. 13-15 he will visit Sri Lanka to formally invite President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Khan said.