Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri on Sunday said India and Pakistan were close to reaching an agreement to resolve Siachen issue and suggested a "breakthrough" on this was expected next month to enable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan.
He said meetings of Foreign Secretaries and Foreign Ministers' of the two countries in Delhi next month would hopefully achieve a breakthrough to enable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Pakistan.
Kasuri said he would visit New Delhi next month to attend the wedding of the daughter of Panchayati Raj Mani Shanker Ayer during which he hopes to meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
"As a Foreign Minister of Pakistan, I know we are very close to an agreement. I will not go into details. It depends on political will and I hope that the Prime Minister and the (new) Foreign Minister of India will show that political will", Kasuri told PTI here in an exclusive interview.
The Foreign Secretaries, who are meeting in Delhi on November 14-15, will work out dates for a formal meeting between the two, Kasuri said.
The Pakistan Foreign Minister said he would not attend the meeting being called by India on Afghanistan to be held in Delhi on November 18-19 and instead, Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar would attend it.
Pressed for details on the backchannel talks being held to resolve Siachen dispute, Kasuri said "I said my understanding as a Foreign Minister is that they are close to an agreement. What is now needed is political will. I can not go into details".
Asked whether a breakthrough is expected at Foreign Secretaries meeting to be held in New Delhi on November 14-15 to review the Composite Dialogue process followed by Foreign Ministers review meeting, Kasuri said "I will tell you what we will try and do. I can speak for Pakistan. We want that your Prime Minister should be able to pay a visit to Pakistan."
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"These high level visits are important and do not ever under estimate them. People commit that mistake. That is where the human element comes in. High level visits are important", he said.
"Both Foreign Ministers and our Foreign Secretaries will try and achieve the same thing during our meetings. We should pave the way to your Prime Minister's visit to Pakistan and to make his visit a success and substantive one because it is very important for India-Pak relations that Prime Minister pays the visit and it achieves something concrete," he said.
When pointed out that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf himself said Singh's visit as and when it takes place should be substantive, Kasuri said "you are right. That is why I said it should be the objective of the Foreign Ministers of both the countries that happens. Glitches should be removed by the Foreign Ministers", he said.
"The Foreign Secretaries will be meeting. We have two very experienced Foreign Secretaries. I can now even speak about India Foreign Secretary, (Shivshankar Menon) because I have dealt with him when he was the High Commissioner to India here. He is an experienced, perhaps more experienced in India about Pakistan then anybody in India today because he was posted here," he said.
"So, we have (Pakistan Foreign Secretary) Riaz Muhammad Khan who knows Menon when he was here and the two also knew each other from their days in China where they were Ambassadors of their respective countries," Kasuri added.
Kasuri said Siachen was one issue on which the two sides could achieve progress besides discussing solutions to the Kashmir issue and the setting up joint mechanism to deal with issues relating to terrorism.
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