Tag: Talks

ISLAMABAD - Backed by the Obama administration, India is strongly urging Pakistan for the inclusion of Afghanistan as an issue in the agenda of Indo-Pak peace dialogue that was resumed recently after months of suspension in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008.
Pakistan and India resumed the peace process after the talks between their foreign secretaries early this month in Thimphu (Bhutan). A statement released simultaneously in Islamabad and New Delhi after the

PRISTINA - Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci on Thursday appointed a special envoy for the EU-brokered talks with Serbia that are expected to begin soon, the government announced. Leading Kosovo's delegation for the dialogue on practical matters with Serbia will be deputy prime minister Edita Tahiri, the government said in the press release.
"Dialogue as independent and sovereign countries with neighboring countries, including the Republic of Serbia, and solving practical

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken steps for the development and welfare of the doctors, nurses and other officials working in health sector and on his directions the Health Department has regularised about 5,000 doctors besides, promoting hundreds of medical officers, said Health Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad on Thursday.
He was chairing a meeting to review measures taken for the health sector development and doctors' welfare. He said 1,135 medical officers

ATHENS - Greek police clashed with protesters on Wednesday as around 100,000 workers, pensioners and students marched to parliament in protest at austerity policies aimed at helping Greece cope with a huge debt crisis. Riot police fired scores of rounds of teargas and flash bombs at protesters hurling petrol bombs, choking the main Syndagma square with smoke and sending crowds of striking protesters running for cover.
Public and private sector employees' 24-hour strike grounded

ISLAMABAD - The talks between the PPP and PML-N on implementation of the 10-point reforms agenda ended in a deadlock on Tuesday with both sides claiming progress but not sharing specifics, while PML-N chief expressed disappointment at the government's performance in the implementation of the agenda, saying that it's time the people decide the future course of action.
Addressing reporters after the talks, PML-N team leader Senator Ishaq Dar did not take a hard line saying it was

ISLAMABAD - It was only after the acceptance of India's demand for alteration in the composite dialogue agenda that the 'impasse' between Islamabad and New Delhi over the stalled peace process could be removed recently in Bhutanese capital, Thimphu leading to the resumption of talks that came to a halt in November 2008 after the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Before the Indo-Pak foreign secretaries' meeting held in the beginning of this month in Thimphu, India had made it clear that

BEIRUT - The formation of a new government in Lebanon has been delayed as politicians haggle over the distribution of ministries, an official said on Thursday. "The government will not see the light of day this week," the official working with prime minister-designate Najib Mikati told AFP.
"There are no real obstructions but some parties have high demands and talks are still going on to find a formula that will satisfy everyone," he added, without elaborating. The official said

ISLAMABAD - Talks on the 10-point agenda with the government have concluded and the PML-N's support for additional revenue measures is linked to the implementation of its reform agenda within the deadline, the party said on Tuesday.
After lengthy deliberations, the government and the PML-N decided to direct the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to determine within three weeks whether political influence was used in writing off 1,300 loans of 16 public sector financial institutions

NESBRU - The Philippine government and communist rebels resumed peace talks near Oslo on Tuesday, more than six years after the last round broke down, but prospects for progress remained uncertain after the arrest hours earlier of a top guerilla leader. "Dialogue is not a sign of weakness. It is a strategy of the brave. It opens doors," Norway's deputy foreign minister Espen Barth Eide declared in opening remarks at a Nesbru hotel overlooking the icy Oslo fjord.
The two sides

ISLAMABAD - The recent agreement between Pakistan and India in Bhutan to resume dialogue for resolving various disputes was greatly facilitated by the backdoor diplomacy. Leading opinion makers and parliamentarians from India and Pakistan participated in two backdoor channel initiatives, held separately in Bangkok and Islamabad, prior to the talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in Bhutan.
These meetings were designed to improve the ambience of Pak-India

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is ready, as it appears to have agreed with India, to move forward with a new approach for an engagement with its neighbour to start a "full-spectrum" dialogue without giving this process a diplomatic nomenclature but carefully picking the thread from where it had been dropped after the Mumbai incident that jeopardised the peace process.
"Pakistan will approach (all issues) with an open and a constructive mind... it's a work in progress but it's resuming with a

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and India on Thursday announced that they will resume the peace talks stalled after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 on all bilateral disputes, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
The agreement to this effect was announced by the two foreign ministries simultaneously following the talks on Sunday between the Indo-Pak foreign secretaries in Bhutanese capital, Thimphu, where the prime ministers of neighboring states had also met back in April

CAIRO - A leftwing Egyptian opposition party formerly known for toeing the line set by President Hosni Mubarak's regime announced on Thursday it was withdrawing from a national dialogue on reform. The Tagammu party, which controls a handful of seats in parliament, said in a faxed statement its decision was based on "the regime's refusal to address the minimum of the people's demands."
It also objected to a comment by Vice President Omar Suleiman, who warned this week that the

KUALA LUMPUR - The Philippine government and the nation's main Islamic separatist group agreed on Thursday to push ahead with a faltering peace process after meeting for the first time in two years. The government hailed the meeting as a success, saying it yielded agreements on substantive issues and that the two sides agreed to "fast track the peace process" with another round of talks scheduled for the next month.
The meeting in Kuala Lumpur also covered concerns over the

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/LAHORE - The PIA workers' Joint Action Committee (JAC) continued its strike on Wednesday after their dialogue with the government representatives failed to bring the desired results, as the SHC suspended the removal of service notices issued to the PALPA president and secretary general by PIA.
The protesting workers announced that they would remain off duty until the fulfillment of their demands, including the removal of PIA Managing Director Ijaz Haroon,

ISLAMABAD - The government on Wednesday shared its plans for expenditure cuts with the PML-N team by disclosing that it planned to halve the increase in salaries of government employees in this year's budget for the remaining four months of the current fiscal year, and reduce the Rs 70 billion-flood relief fund by Rs 10 billion.
A source said the PML-N team, however, demanded an across-the-board salary cut, including slashing of salaries of parliamentarians, ministers, the prime

SEOUL - Military talks aimed at easing high tensions between North and South Korea broke down Wednesday when the North's delegation walked out, Seoul's defence ministry said. The two sides had been meeting for the first time since the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean island on November 23, which briefly sparked fears of war.
A ministry spokesman told AFP the delegates even failed to discuss when to meet again. "Under the current situation, we can say the talks have