New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh will be travelling to Islamabad for a meeting of SAARC home minister's conference on August 3, marking the first high-level contact between the two governments since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise visit to Pakistan in December.
The visit comes at a time the two governments are engaged in a diplomatic tussle over the Pathankot airbase terror attack and Pakistan raking up the clashes in Jammu and Kashmir.
During the visit, apart from attending the SAARC meet, Singh is likely to have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other SAARC member-countries, including Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
Key issues like a coordinated fight against terrorism, illegal trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and small arms will figure in the meeting.
The three-tier meeting 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 also enhance information-sharing among law enforcement agencies.
The last meeting of SAARC Interior/Home Ministers’ conference was held in Kathmandu in 2014 when the Home Minister had said that member-nations of the group were facing common challenges and they should cooperate with each other to address them.
Singh had said that India was committed to reviving the grouping as a major forum to promote active regional collaboration.
The Home Minister had also voiced concern over the new threats of terrorism and violence to South Asia especially and asked SAARC countries to chalk out strategies to check radical groups and extremist ideologies.
(With inputs from PTI)
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