Foreign ministers of Pakistan and India will meet informally on the sidelines of a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in New York later this month, SAARC Secretary General Amjad B Sial confirmed to Daily Times from Kathmandu on Friday. The meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers will take place on September 27 in New York.
Sial said that a number of issues concerning SAARC would be discussed at the Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting, which would be chaired by Pakistan.
“The meeting is also expected to break the deadlock over holding of SAARC summit, which has been pending since 2016 after India’s refusal to attend the previous meeting scheduled for November 10, 2016,” the secretary general said. The secretary general said that the next SAARC summit would be held in Islamabad and its dates would also be decided at foreign ministers meeting to be held in New York. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s visit to New York has been delayed as he will be accompanying Prime Minister Imran Khan to Saudi Arabia next week. Upon his return to Islamabad, he will depart for New York to represent Pakistan at the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly. In New York, the minister is expected to meet a number of top UN officials, his counterparts from various countries. He will also hold talks with the media and think tanks.
Published in Daily Times, September 15th 2018.