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Summary Pak-India foreign secretaries will meet Tuesday to firm up confidence-building measures.
They will also discuss other initiatives to be announced by their foreign ministers the following day. Accompanied by senior officials, Pakistans Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, who reached India Monday evening, will hold talks with his counterpart Nirupama Rao Tuesday.The two diplomats will firm up the agenda for talks between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar Wednesday. Khar, Pakistans first woman foreign minister and the youngest to occupy the post, arrives here Tuesday for talks.Rao and Bashir are expected to review an entire gamut of bilateral issues and firm up deliverables that will be unveiled by the foreign ministers Wednesday. Pakistan is expected to raise the Kashmir issue. A source said two sides Wednesday will announce a slew of CBMs aimed at lowering barriers to expanded trade and travel across the two divided halves of Kashmir.An increase in the frequency of cross-Kashmir bus links between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and Poonch and Rawalakot, an increase in the number of trading days across the Line of Control (LoC), and opening of more trading points are expected to be the tangible outcomes of talks.The meeting between the foreign ministers marks the high point of the peace process India resumed with Pakistan after an over two-year hiatus following the Nov 26-28, 2008 Mumbai terror spree that was perpetrated and masterminded by Pakistani terrorists and elements from across the border.
