New Delhi: Nuclear neighbours India and Pakistan are set to take yet another step to towards normalisation of bilateral ties derailed after the terror attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
Indian Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar is scheduled to lead a six-member delegation to Islamabad next week to give a boost to bilateral trade, especially cross-border trade.
Khullar will hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Zafar Mehmood in Islamabad.
The meeting between the two commerce secretaries follows earlier meetings between foreign and home secretaries of the two countries. The meeting between the two home secretaries in New Delhi was followed by a summit-level meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the India-Pakistan cricket World Cup semi-final match held at Mohali in Punjab on March 30.
New Delhi had suspended all bilateral dialogue with Pakistan after the Mumbai attack. The thaw in the frozen ties was witnessed at Thimphu in Bhutan last year when Singh and Gilani met on the sidelines of the Saarc summit.
The two neighbours since then have been taking one step at a time and indulging in pragmatic dialogue by trying to find points of convergence and put on backburner areas of differences, such as Kashmir and dismantling terror infrastructure in Pakistan.
The two countries have agreed to put on hold the composite dialogue process that would address the key issues until these small steps bring in desired results and prevailing tension is lowered considerably.
India letting Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan go after he was detained for carrying foreign currency illegally in February and Pakistani authorities releasing suspected spy Gopal Das who had spent 27 years in a Pakistani prison have helped in creating goodwill.
According to sources in the government, the two foreign secretaries would try to find ways and means to boost economic ties through increased export and import. The focus would be on India importing cement from Pakistan and Pakistan importing cotton from India, besides ensuring fulfillment of all pending contracts singed in the past at the old agreed prices.
