New Delhi
25 October 2006
The newly appointed minister of external affairs, Mr Pranab
Mukherjee, will get an opportunity to exchange notes and possibly ideas for moving
forward the stalled India-Pakistan peace process when he meets with his Pakistani
counterpart Khursheed Mahmud Kasuri in New Delhi next month.
The wedding of Mr Pranab Mukherjee's colleague and Union Minister of Sports and
Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar's daughter Yamini in November is expected to be
the occasion for their interaction. Mr Aiyar, who is a former Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
official, is friends with Mr Kasuri.
Sources at Mr Aiyar's office and his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday indicated
that the wedding ceremony, reception and associated functions would be spread over at
least three days as the wedding will be solemnised as per the "South Indian" customs
and traditions.
"The wedding of Mr Aiyar's daughter Yamini will be spread over several days between
November 23 and November 27," an aide of Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar told this newspaper.
When contacted, another aide at the minister's residence said Pakistan Foreign Minister
Khursheed Mahmud Kasuri is among the "VIP" invitees who are likely to attend a
function on November 26 in New Delhi.
Mr Aiyar was travelling on an official visit to Sikkim and was not expected to return to
New Delhi before Thursday evening, the aide informed.
While the Ministry of External Affairs is circumspect about the prospects of an
unscheduled meeting between Mr Mukherjee and Mr Kasuri, the Pakistani media have
quoted sources in Islamabad as saying that the Pakistani foreign minister will pay an
official-cum-private visit to India next month and that the schedule for the visit and his
meetings in New Delhi will be worked out next week through diplomatic channels.
Islamabad is understood to have suggested that the finetuning of the fourth round of the
composite dialogue between Pakistan and India would be determined in the course of Mr
Kasuri's discussions in New Delhi. The contours of the India-Pakistan anti-terrorism
institutional mechanism is likely to come up for discussion too.
Before the July 11 Mumbai serial blasts took place, the Ministry of External Affairs had
proposed July 20 for the foreign secretary-level talks in New Delhi. That was to be
followed on July 21 by the meeting of two foreign ministers and the meeting of the India-
Pakistan Joint Commission a day later, on July 22.
The spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs has said Pakistan's Foreign Secretary
Riaz Mohammad Khan will visit New Delhi from November 13 to 15 for talks with Foreign
Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
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