NEW DELHI, July 5:
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna will undertake his much-anticipated visit to Pakistan in the first half of September.
Krishna had to defer his July 18-19 visit to Pakistan to review the peace talks, which picked up after the 26/11 chill, due to the Presidential elections scheduled around the same time.
“We are looking for some time in the first half of September for me to visit Islamabad before the UN General Assembly,” Krishna told reporters here.
His remarks come hours after the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan concluded their two-day talks during which they decided to carry forward the dialogue process in a purposeful and result-oriented manner.
Krishna said he was scheduled to travel to Pakistan on July 18-19 but had to call off the visit as the dates clashed with the Presidential elections here.
“There is some problem with reference to the dates. We had decided on July 19 as the date for me to travel to Pakistan. But we did not realise that the polling for the Presidential election would be on the same day,” he said.
“It has become incumbent on my part to be in India as part of the electoral college,” Krishna said, adding that the Pakistani side has been informed about the need to work out alternate dates.
The minister said External Affairs Ministry officials were in touch with their counterparts in Pakistan and the issue was also discussed during the bilateral talks Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai had with his counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani. (PTI)
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