Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna will travel to Islamabad to meet his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on July 15. Although it has not been stated in as many words, it has virtually been decided to restart the Composite Dialogue, as it was decided to discuss all outstanding issues between the two countries, including the issues included in the Composite Dialogue.

Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna telephoned Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday. In the 25-minute conversation, it has been decided that all outstanding issues would be discussed, including Kashmir and the contentious Indus Water Treaty.

Soon after his telephone conversation with the Pakistan foreign minister, Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said, “I had a telephone conversation with the foreign minister of Pakistan, my esteemed friend, S.M. Qureshi. This was a follow-up of the meeting of our two prime ministers in Thimpu where it was decided that the foreign ministers and the foreign secretaries will work out the methodology as to how the dialogue between the two countries can be carried out so that all outstanding issues between our two countries could be discussed in an atmosphere of mutual trust and mutual respect. The foreign minister of Pakistan has invited me to go to Islamabad on July 15. So, I am planning to visit Islamabad for my talks with Foreign Minister Muhammad Qureshi and I am looking forward to these talks. Let us hope that these talks will be helpful in bringing our two countries closer together, bringing our two countries the cordiality that all of us desire. And let us hope that our effort will be fruitful.”

A series of high-level contacts are expected to take place, with Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram set to visiting Pakistan on June 26 to meet the Pakistan interior minister on the sidelines of the SAARC Home Ministers Conference. Chidambaram will be accompanied by Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who will lay the foundation with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir for the meeting of the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers on July 15.

Although Bashir met Rao in New Delhi on Feb. 25, it was the meeting of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Pakistan Premier Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in Thimpu in Bhutan on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit that proved to be path breaking. It was in that meeting that it was decided that the foreign secretaries and foreign ministers of the two countries would meet to work out the modalities for the bilateral engagement. It is as a follow-up of that meeting that S. M. Krishna spoke to Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday.