Pakistan, Indian PMs To Meet In Maldives This Week

Islamabad, Nov. 9, IRNA – Pakistani Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani,will meet his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, in the Maldives on the sidelines of a regional summit this week, official sources said on Tuesday. The two Prime Ministers will be in the Maldives for the summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to be held on November 10-11. The meeting will be held at a time when relationship between the two nuclear rivals is improving and they are now focusing on promotion of trade links. Pakistan decided last week to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India to provide more privileges to it. India had given the MFN status to Pakistan in 1999. Both countries have also decided to raise the volume of bilateral trade to $6 billion in the next three years from the current $2.7 billion. Meanwhile, Foreign Secretaries of Pakistan and India met on Tuesday at the margins of SAARC Standing Committee in Addu atoll in the Maldives, the Foreign Ministry said. Both sides reviewed the status of bilateral relations with a view to carrying forward the process of dialogue, a Foreign Ministry statement said. They expressed satisfaction on the engagement process. They also discussed matters relating to the forthcoming meeting between the two Prime Ministers in the Maldives. Both sides also discussed regional cooperation under the SAARC framework and agreed to promote this in a holistic manner. The talks were held in a cordial and constructive atmosphere. It was agreed that stable, normal and predictable relations between Pakistan and India were in the interest of both countries and the region as a whole. This was the first meeting of Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir with the new Indian Foreign Secretary Rangan Mathai, the statement said./end