India, Pak to hold talks on June 24

NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will hold talks with her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir in Islamabad on June 24 to reduce the trust deficit between India and Pakistan, the first such meeting after the thaw in Thimphu nearly seven weeks ago.

Rao will also call on Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the external affairs ministry said here on Friday while announcing the foreign secretary-level talks.

During their meeting in Thimphu on April 29, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan had directed their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries to meet and work out the modalities of restoring mutual trust between the two countries.

The Foreign Secretaries have been tasked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani to find ways to bridge the trust deficit between the two countries and to prepare the ground for a meeting between External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad on July 15.

Soon after Rao's visit to Pakistan, Home Minister P Chidambaram will arrive in Islamabad to attend a meeting of interior ministers of SAARC countries.

Chidambaram will also hold talks with Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on the sidelines of the SAARC meeting on June 26.