ISLAMABAD, 16 September 2003 — Pakistan’s foreign minister wants to travel to New Delhi next month to personally invite India to an upcoming regional summit, the government said yesterday. The trip would mark the highest-level visit between the two South Asian rivals in more than two years.
Relations between Pakistan and India have been slowly improving after the two countries reached the brink of war last year. The minister, Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri, will travel to India so long as Indian officials agree to receive him, said ministry spokesman Masood Khan. Kasuri wants to “personally deliver an invitation” to the Indian leadership for the conference of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, Khan said.
“He has an intention of visiting India because he is visiting all SAARC countries,” Khan said.
“But we will see the kind of response we receive from India.”
If it comes off, the trip would be the highest-level visit between the two countries since Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the Indian city of Agra in July 2001.
In December of that year, suspected militants attacked the Indian Parliament, killing 14 people. India blamed Pakistan for the attack, and the two nations quickly cut air, rail and bus service.
