Bilateral talks with Pak may be on cards during SAARC meet: HM

New Delhi, Feb 1 (PTI) Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram
Monday indicated that he may hold a bilateral meeting with his
Pakistani counterpart during South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Home and Interior Ministers'
conference scheduled in Islamabad later this month.
"If I presume that I go to Pakistan, I presume I will
hold bilateral talks if there is an opportunity but please
remember that SAARC is a multi-lateral forum," he said at his
monthly press briefing here.
He was replying to a question whether he will hold
bilateral talks with his Pakistani counterpart if he goes to
Pakistan to attend the SAARC Home or Interior Ministers'
Conference.
In case Chidambaram travels to Islamabad, it would be the
first ministerial visit to Pakistan since May, 2008 when then
Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had gone for
talks as part of composite dialogue.
The third SAARC interior ministers' conference postponed
from November 24 and 27, 2009 at the request from Bangladesh
because of parliamentary polls in that country is now
scheduled from February 20.
The meeting will be attended by ministers from
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka and is expected to discuss regional
cooperation for dealing with the menace of terrorism,
narcotics and organised crime.
The first such meeting was held in Dhaka in May 2006 and
then in New Delhi in October 2007. PTI ACB
RBT