Hoping to bridge the trust deficit and work out modalities to carry forward the dialogue process,External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will visit Islamabad on July 15 for talks with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureishi. Prior to this meeting,Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will meet her counterpart Salman Bashir in Islamabad on June 26 on the sidelines of the meeting of SAARC Home Ministers. She will accompany Home Minister P Chidambaram to the SAARC meet. In the last twelve days,after Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani decided to resume dialogue at the political level,Islamabad and New Delhi exchanged notes on possible dates. Pakistan expressed the desire that the Foreign Ministers meet in the last week of May. But sources told The Indian Express that India was keen to test the waters with Chidambarams visit to Islamabad on June 26 where he will be able to meet Interior Minister Rehman Malik and get a briefing on the trial in Pakistan of the 26/11 plotters and investigations into the attack. Krishna spoke to Qureishi today and agreed to visit Islamabad on July 15 to carry forward the discussions. The conversation this morning lasted for 25 minutes. The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has invited me to Islamabad on the 15th of July. I am looking forward to these talks. Let us hope that these talks will be helpful in bringing our two countries closer together,bringing our two countries the cordiality that all of us desire. And let us hope that our effort will be fruitful, Krishna told reporters. He said Qureishi and he will work out the methodology to carry forward the dialogue so that all outstanding issues could be discussed in an atmosphere of mutual trust. He said the Prime Ministers,after their meeting in Thimpu last month,had asked the Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries to meet as soon as possible and discuss ways to reduce the trust deficit. In Islamabad,Qureishi said the two sides were going into the talks with an open mind and positive approach. Acts of terror,he said,would not be allowed to impede the dialogue process.
