Indo-Pak FMs talks delayed, Secretaries to meet in July

New Delhi: The meeting between the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan has been delayed since the dates were clashing with the Presidential poll here but Foreign Secretaries of the two countries will hold talks on 4-5 July. According to official sources, Pakistan wanted to hold the meeting on 19 July which was not convenient to the Indian side in view of the Presidential poll on that date. The new dates are being worked out at the convenience of both sides and the meeting is likely to happen in August, the sources said. However, official spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin stressed that the rescheduling was not indicative of any “substance problem” between the two neighbours. “Don’t merge substance with process …. rescheduling should not be taken as substance problem,” the spokesperson said. [caption id=“attachment_357983” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The new dates are being worked out. AFP”]  [/caption] He also announced that Foreign Secretaries Ranjan Mathai will hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani here on 4-5 July to discuss peace and security, including CBMs, Kashmir and promotion of friendly exchanges. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna was expected to travel to Islamabad on 18-19 July to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar after the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries met in Delhi. The Indo-Pak dialogue, which was stalled following the Mumbai terror attack in November 2008, resumed last year with both sides holding a series of meetings on the eight components under the ‘Composite Dialogue’ format, including terrorism, Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek and Trade. The two countries have already had four segments including terrorism, trade and water in the past few months with two more -on Siachen and Sir Creek- slated for this month as part of the second round of talks. PTI