Pakistani, Indian diplomats to finalize agenda for PMs summit

Pakistani and Indian diplomats will finalize agenda for the upcoming summit meeting of prime ministers of the two countries in the United Nations later this month, a senior Pakistani advisor on national security and foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, said on Friday.

Sartaj Aziz met Indian External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek and discussed the summit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh.

Both the Prime Minister will travel to New York for UN General Assembly’s meeting.

“Considering the likelihood of a meeting between the two Prime Ministers we agreed to use diplomatic channels to finalize the agenda for such a meeting keeping in view the progress made so far in various working groups and in back channel contacts,” a Foreign Ministry statement quoted Mr. Aziz as saying.

Both the Pakistani and Indian top diplomats also discussed options ways to reduce tension along the Line of Control that divide both countries in the disputed Kashmir region.

Forces of the two countries traded fire along the LoC in recent weeks, causing casualties on both sides.

“We both agreed that it was important to respect the 2003 Ceasefire agreement in order to reduce tensions and for this purpose, we agreed that the existing mechanism shall be used more effectively,” Sartaj Aziz said.

He said both countries have two mechanisms at present – one of the Director Generals of the Military Operations who talk regularly every Tuesday and a Joint Working Group on Cross LoC Confidence Building Measures at level of senior officials of Ministries of Foreign Affairs.

“I conveyed our concern and disappointment that the momentum which the two Prime Ministers had created for the peace process and the composite dialogue, soon after the new government took over the Pakistan in June this year,” Aziz said.

He said he also emphasized that the objective of establishing durable peace in South Asia is of such paramount importance that it should not be held hostage to electoral politics or the process allowed to be derailed by a single incident.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Sep 13 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.