Zardari to meet Singh on April 8

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Zardari will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on April 8. He would be the first head of state to visit India since 2005, President’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said on Monday. The lunch talks are the latest sign of the nuclear-armed rivals making gradual progress towards normalising relations, quietly supported by a West keen to improve regional stability as NATO troops leave Afghanistan in 2014. Babar said Zardari would have lunch with Singh in New Delhi and finish the one-day trip with a “private visit for prayers” at the shrine of Sufi saint Hazrat Khawaja Ghareeb Nawaz in Ajmer Sharif. “The president has also accepted the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for lunch in New Delhi en route to Ajmer Sharif,” said Babar. India’s Foreign Ministry (FM) declined to confirm the visit. But Pakistani FM spokesman Abdul Basit said, “President Asif Zardari’s meeting with Prime Minister Singh will contribute towards translating the president’s vision of inter-regional cooperation and harmony,” he said. afp

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