The Hindu : National : Natwar to meet Kasuri on June 21

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 17, 2004

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Natwar to meet Kasuri on June 21

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 16. In the first formal, high-level contact between India and Pakistan, the External Affairs Minister, Natwar Singh, will meet his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri, over a working lunch in Qingdao, China, on June 21.

The External Affairs Ministry spokesman confirmed to presspersons this evening that Mr. Singh will also have meetings with the Foreign Ministers of China, South Korea, Japan and Oman in Qingdao on the sidelines of the June 20-21 Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) meeting.

Mr. Singh is travelling to Qingdao for the third ACD meeting. The ACD is an idea promoted by Thailand, whose first meeting took place in Cha'am, Thailand, in June 2002 and was attended by Yashwant Sinha in his capacity as Finance Minister.

According to the spokesman, the idea behind the ACD is to have an overarching framework for existing sub-regional cooperation groupings spanning the whole of Asia.

"They have a concept of prime movers ... India is the prime mover for biotechnology and transportation. We have already hosted the first ACD biotechnology consortium in October 2003 and preparations are on for holding one on transportation in 2005," he said.

Already, the Thai Foreign Minister, Surakiat Sathirathai, has visited India to meet the new External Affairs Minister.

Mr. Surakiat's visit signalled the importance Thailand attaches to India in both the bilateral and multilateral context.

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