India, Pak foreign secretaries burn midnight oil to find common ground

September 27th, 2009 NEW YORK - Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir here on Saturday to prepare the ground for the crucial talks between their foreign ministers where India is expected to demand speedy action against 26/11 perpetrators. The meeting between Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir came on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, marking the first high-level contact between the two countries since the Prime Ministers of the two countries met at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on July 16.

September 26th, 2009 NEW YORK - The Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries met here Saturday to prepare the ground for the crucial talks between their foreign ministers where India is expected to focus on terrorism and demand speedy action against 26/11 perpetrators. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir met at the Roosvelt Hotel, marking the first high-level contact between the two sides since the prime ministers of the two countries met at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in July.

September 21st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Hoping to resume the stalled peace process and discuss "the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir", Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir said Monday that he would meet his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao in New York Sep 26. The meeting of the two foreign secretaries will be followed by talks between India's External Affairs Minister S.M.

September 21st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet on September 26 followed by foreign ministers' level talks on September 27 in New York, resuming the dialogue process on the sidelines of UN General Assembly session. Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Monday confirmed that a meeting with his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao would be held on September 26 in New York.

September 21st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani ministers have criticised the government's decision to restrict their foreign tours in the name of austerity, terming the new policy "ambiguous, self-contradictory and stringent," demanding flexibility and clarity in it. The Cabinet Division had announced the bar on foreign travel in view of financial constraints and to observe austerity in line with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's directions.

August 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will hold talks in New York in September when the foreign ministers of both countries attend the United Nations General Assembly session. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he would like the foreign secretaries of the two countries to meet as soon as possible.

July 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A former American expert believes that the US has attained little success in changing Pakistan's attitude towards India. Former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Teresita Schaffer said while Washington has repeatedly asked Pakistan to focus more on the internal threat posed by the Taliban rather than considering India as a major threat to its interests, it has failed to redirect Islamabad's concern towards the real danger.

July 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan are expected to meet again next month to set up the agenda for the scheduled talks between the Foreign Ministers of both countries on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The UN General Assembly is scheduled to be held in mid-September, so it is pertinent that the Foreign Secretaries of both India and Pakistan would meet before that, sources said.

July 15th, 2009 Sharm-el-SHEIKH - After his late night meeting with Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, which the two sides described as frank and detailed, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Basheer expressed regret that relations between the two South Asian neighbours had come to such a pass that they have to meet thousands of miles away here in Egypt. He said: "We would be happy to come to New Delhi, I have been there before and we would be happy to have the Indian side over at Islamabad." Was that an invitation or a signal that the process of regular interactions between foreign secretaries, home secretaries, director generals of military intelligence will be back on track is anybody's guess.

July 15th, 2009 Sharm-el-SHEIKH - Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, who met here late Tuesday, will meet once again Wednesday before the prime ministers of the two countries hold talks, official sources said. Holding out the possibility that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani would perhaps meet the press together after their talks Thursday morning, sources here said that the two foreign secretaries held one-on-one discussions for 90 minutes.

June 27th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has termed his meeting with his Indian counterpart SM Krishna in Italy as a positive development, in which he called for constructive engagement and sustained dialogue to address common challenges. The Daily Times quoted Qureshi, as saying that through constructive engagement both countries could address common challenges and resolve outstanding issues.

June 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Will the foreign ministers and the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India meet separately on the sidelines of a G8 conclave beginning at Trieste, Italy, Thursday? Media reports Tuesday suggested the two meetings could take place. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is expected to meet his Indian counterpart S.M.

June 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Will the Pakistani and Indian foreign secretaries meet on the sidelines of the G8 summit beginning in Trieste, Italy, Thursday? A media report Tuesday suggested this could be possible. Hectic efforts are continuing for setting up a date and venue for a meeting between Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon before the six-day Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, starting on July 11, Mariana Baabar wrote in The News.

June 16th, 2009 YEKATERINBURG - Leaders of India and Pakistan Tuesday asked their foreign secretaries to meet within a month with the sole agenda of reviewing the primary issue of cross- border terrorism that has plagued their ties. This was decided during the 40-minute talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari -- most of it alone -- their first since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

June 16th, 2009 YEKATERINBURG - Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet in the next few weeks and review Islamabad's actions against terrorism before taking a decision on resuming their "composite dialogue", it was decided during talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari here Tuesday. The two leaders agreed to a meeting between their foreign secretaries to discuss the "primary issue" of terrorism and report to them before the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in the Egyptian town of Sharm-al-Sheikh in mid-July, officials said.