Not burdened by history,Khar meets Krishna today

This emerged as a broad theme of the meeting of the Foreign Secretaries on Tuesday.

With External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar set to meet on Wednesday for their first ministerial meeting in India after five months of official-level talks,New Delhi and Islamabad have decided to focus on the positives and convergences reached during discussions between the Home Secretaries and Commerce Secretaries from both sides. This emerged as a broad theme of the meeting of the Foreign Secretaries on Tuesday.

(They) had very cordial and positive discussions today… they reviewed the progress in talks between different ministries and organisations of the two countries in the preceding months, said MEAs official spokesperson Vishnu Prakash after Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir at Hyderabad House to finalise the agenda for the foreign ministers meeting.

The Home and Commerce Secretaries had met in March and April respectively,and had agreed on a range of issues. The two sides are drawing from these two productive meetings and they now have a menu of possibilities relating to cross-LoC trade,people-to-people contacts and humanitarian issues,according to government sources.

While the convergences will be harped upon,the two sides will also set out a roadmap for the future with short and medium-term goals and will spell out meetings between business leaders to discuss cooperation on petroleum products,electricity and information technology.

As the 34-year-old Pakistan Foreign Minister landed here,she struck a positive note. I hope that these two countries have learnt lessons from history,but are not burdened by history,and we can move forward as good,friendly neighbours who have a stake in each others future,and both the countries understand their responsibilities to the region and within the region, she said on arrival here.

She will be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj,and may also meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. She is likely to visit the Nizamuddin dargah on Thursday before leaving for Islamabad.

Khar,the youngest Foreign Minister of Pakistan,told reporters in Lahore before leaving for India that Pakistan was looking forward to a pro-active,productive and result-oriented engagement with India on all issues,including Kashmir on which we should not be held hostage to history. She,however,said both countries had committed themselves to an uninterrupted and uninterruptible peace process since they began their re-engagement earlier this year.