India, Pakistan to hold high level meeting next month

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser on foreign affairs and national security Sartaj Aziz will meet Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on the sidelines of an event in India next month, said a government spokesman Thursday. If held, this will be the highest level meeting between the two countries since the prime minisers of the two countries met last month in New York. Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said India has received a request for a meeting between Aziz and Khurshid on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of foreign ministers in New Delhi next month. "We have received a request from them for a meeting with the external affairs minister on the margins of the event... We intend to have that meeting," he said. Relations between the two neighbors became tense this month due to skirmishes along the line-of-control and international border in Kashmir. However, the two sides have agreed to calm down along the border to allow farmers on the two sides of the border area to harvest their crop. The 11th ASEM Foreign Ministers' Meeting will have the proposed theme: "ASEM: Bridge to Partnership for Growth and Development".