SAARC diplomacy: Shaukat Aziz to visit India next month

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will visit India in the third week of November in his capacity as SAARC chairman.

The prime minister will leave for Bangladesh on November 3 in the first leg of his trip to SAARC member states. Mr Aziz will visit Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan on the first leg of his trip and then he will travel to Sri Lanka, Maldives and India.

Sources attached a lot of importance to Mr Aziz’s trip to India. “It will be the second highest level contact between leaders of Pakistan and India after the recent meeting between President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in New York,” sources said. The trip will come ahead of the second round of composite dialogue between the two countries. The second round is scheduled for the last week of November. Mr Aziz will also meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the Indian president.

Mr Aziz’s trip round the region is part of the SAARC’s long-standing tradition. Pakistan is the current SAARC chairman.

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