QINGDAO, June 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar
Singh had his first ever meeting here Monday with his Pakistani counterpart
Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.
A press note from the Indian Embassy in China described the meeting as
"warm and productive." The meetin
g, the first ever after the inauguration of the
new Indian government in May, occurred over a working lunch here, it said.
The two ministers are here to attend the third foreign ministers' meeting
of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), due toopen Tuesday.
The press note said this was their first direct meeting following upon the
several telephone conversations between them and also the first high-level
direct political contact after the new government took office in India.
It said the two ministers reviewed the progress in all aspects of bilateral
relations including Jammu and Kashmir, and implementation of the framework for
the dialogue process worked out in February by the foreign secretaries of the
two countries.
They assessed positively the progress in the discussions held, including at
the meetings between Indian border security force andPakistan Rangers, the
Narcotics Control Authorities of the two countries, and the Expert Level
dialogue on nuclear confidence-building measures, the press note said.
They welcomed the agreement worked out in the meeting, which concluded
Sunday, to establish and upgrade communications, and work for specific
confidence-building measures, including through an agreement on advance
notification of missile tests, it said.
India and Pakistan have also called for regular working level meetings to
be held among all the nuclear powers to discuss issuesof common concern, the
press note said.
The press note said they reiterated that they looked forward tothe meeting
of the foreign secretaries scheduled for June 27-28, and to concrete outcomes
from that meeting so as to take forward the present process.
The two ministers agreed to remain in regular touch and providecontinuous
political guidance to the on-going process, according to the press note. They
expect to meet each other on several occasions over the next two months, said
the press note. Enditem