Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh will, early next month, visit Pakistan to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s (SAARC) meeting in home and interior ministers.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on August 3 and 4.
It will be the first visit by a senior Indian government figure after Pathankot airbase attack and flare up in held Kashmir.
The Indian home minister apart from attending the SAARC meeting will likely have bilateral meetings with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar.
The meeting will likely discuss the issues of a coordinated fight against terrorism, illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and small arms.
The moot will begin at the joint secretary-level and then move on to secretary and home minister-level meetings.
The meeting will also focus on strengthening networking among police authorities of SAARC member-countries and enhance information-sharing among the law enforcement agencies.
At the 13th SAARC Summit held in Dhaka in November 2005, the head of states decided that the SAARC interior and some ministers would meet annually preceded by a meeting of the interior and home secretaries to strengthen cooperation in the area of counter-terrorism, which they agreed was a challenge to all states and a threat to humanity, and could not be justified on any grounds.
The first meeting of SAARC interior and home ministers was held in Dhaka on May 11, 2006, followed by a meeting in New Delhi in 2007.
