Ahead of the first Foreign Secretary-level dialogue in six years between India and Pakistan later this week, External Affairs minister K Natwar Singh met the Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri today on the margins of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue meeting in Qingdao, China.‘‘The two ministers reviewed the progress on all aspects of bilateral relations including Jammu and Kashmir, and implementation of the framework for the dialogue process worked out in February,’’ a press release by the MEA said in Delhi.Coming in the wake of the successfully concluded dialogue on nuclear confidence-building measures over the weekend, today’s 100-minute working lunch in China is clearly aimed at giving political direction to the FS-level meeting later this week.The two ministers embraced for the sake of the camera and affirmed that the ‘‘chemistry was pretty good’’ with each other. Kasuri told reporters that he hoped the ‘‘good progress made during the last government’s tenure in India will be continued. I am encouraged by the statements of the new Indian leadership,’’ he said.‘‘He (Singh) personally told me that the new government looks forward to carrying the process of peace with Pakistan even further and at a faster pace. So I am looking forward to this with great expectations,’’ Kasuri added.The two ministers agreed to remain in regular touch and provide continuous ‘‘political guidance’’ to the ongoing process, the MEA release added.The FS-level meeting later this week will take up the issue of Kashmir, besides peace, security and confidence-building measures. Today’s meeting, at which India’s joint secretary on the Pakistan desk Arun Singh was also present, indicates that the broad directions as well as the detail of the FS dialogue have already been put into place.Similarly, the two-day dialogue on the nuclear CBMs seemed also to have been pre-cooked rather than baked on the spot in Hyderabad House. The three conversations between Singh and Kasuri over the last couple of weeks as well as the secret meeting between the two National Security Advisers J N Dixit and Tariq Aziz, clearly had something to do with setting the dialogue process back in motion.Singh also had a number of meetings in Qingdao with key leaders, including with the foreign ministers of China, Singapore, Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan and Oman. With Chinese foreign minsiter Li Zhaoxing, Singh underlined India’s commitment to improving relations on the basis of the principles of Panchsheel. Invoking the phrase used during Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to Beijing in 1988, Singh said India wished to address all outstanding issues in a ‘‘fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable manner.’’
