NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: Three days after Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s path-breaking advocacy of no first use of nuclear weapons, the country’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi arrives in New Delhi today on a four-day visit that seeks to invigorate the peace process between the two countries.
Qureshi will meet his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow to discuss bilateral issues included in the Composite Dialogue that both the countries started in 2004.
In June this year, Qureshi had to cut short his visit to India to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral.
“The visit is to complete the previous visit and engagements which he had to leave because of the death,” an official in Islamabad told IANS. The official said that the minister would also meet media persons, besides a delegation of Kashmiris.
Qureshi will also pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and will convey “President Asif Zardari’s important message to him” besides reiterating an invitation to visit Pakistan.
Zardari, while addressing Hindustan Times Leadership Summit via satellite from Islamabad on Saturday had stated Pakistan will never make a first nuclear strike and also that Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris.
India and Pakistan are into their fourth round of the Composite Dialogue on eight issues viz: confidence-building measures, Kashmir, Wullar Barrage, Promotion of Friendly Exchanges, Siachen, Sir Creek, Terrorism and Drug Trafficking, and Economic and Commercial Cooperation.
Meanwhile, Indian Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta arrived in Islamabad yesterday on a two-day visit to discuss the visas and prisoners issues. This meeting was to have preceded the SAARC ministers’ summit in Islamabad that had to be postponed on Bangladesh’s request.
Gupta crossed over to Pakistan from the Atari border checkpost in Punjab. “We are happy that this meeting is taking place despite the SAARC meeting being postponed,” the Pakistani official told IANS.
“The whole purpose of the talks is to see that there can be improvement in relations. There have been lots of developments inside Pakistan since the last round,” Gupta told reporters at Attari Border.
