Islamabad, Delhi to Sign Pacts During Pranab’s Visit

ISLAMABAD, 9 January 2007 — Pakistan expects to sign a number of agreements with India during Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Islamabad on Jan. 13.

Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told a weekly briefing yesterday India and Pakistan were likely to sign four agreements aimed at building confidence, reducing the risk of nuclear accidents, renewing the agreement on visa regime and expediting the repatriation of people detained for crossing borders illegally.

Tasnim said Pakistani and Indian officials had finalized the draft of these agreements following secretarial-level talks in New Delhi last year.

She said the Indian external affairs minister will be primarily visiting Pakistan to extend an invitation to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for the SAARC summit, which India is hosting in April. “Pranab will meet with his counterpart Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri to finalize and sign the agreements,” Tasnim said.

The spokeswoman said Pranab will be accompanied by senior officials of the Indian External Affairs Ministry including Secretary Shivshankar Menon, Joint Secretary Dilip Sinha and the ministry’s spokesman Navtej Sarna.

Tasnim said that during the meeting of the two foreign ministers Pakistan will take up the issues of Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen, inter-Kashmir trade, reopening of Pakistani consulate in Mumbai and Indian consulate in Karachi. According to Tasnim, the modalities of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s forthcoming visit to Pakistan will also be discussed during the Kasuri-Pranab meeting.

Earlier, one of the top aides of President Musharraf, Tariq Aziz, who is also the secretary of the National Security Council met S.K. Lambah, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan in Lahore to discuss the arrangements for Manmohan’s visit and the agenda for talks.

In response to a question regarding the European Union’s demand for free and fair elections in Pakistan, Tasnim said, “We are important for the EU as EU is important for us. As far as the general election in Pakistan is concerned it is Pakistan’s internal matter.”