Pak in process of confirming dates for Krishna’s visit: Khar

Phnom Penh: Pakistan on Thursday said it was in the process of “confirming” new dates for the much-anticipated visit of External Affairs minister S M Krishna to Islamabad and hoped the two countries will be able to achieve “some milestones” during his trip.

India has proposed 7-9 September as possible dates for Krishna’s visit to Pakistan after he had to defer his earlier scheduled 18-19 July trip due to the Presidential elections and upcoming session of Parliament.

“We should be able to officially confirm them (the dates) very soon. As Krishna is a very important person we want to make sure that he is able to call on the leadership when he is there.

“We are just confirming the availability of all the key people in Pakistan during those time, especially the president and the prime minister... we are looking forward to receiving him,” Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said here.

“I conveyed to him personally that everybody in Pakistan is looking forward to receiving him, Inshallah, we will hope that in some way the course that we set in New Delhi will achieve at least some milestones in Islamabad,” Khar, who is here to participate in the ASEAN Ministerial meeting, said. On Tuesday, Krishna had said that India had proposed 7, 8 and 9 September as the dates for his visit and was waiting for concurrence of the Government of Pakistan.

On India thanking Pakistan for providing all possible assistance to passengers of the Air India flight that made an emergency landing in its Sindh province on Monday, Khar hoped that the two countries would get used to the “new norm” in their ties and added that the “thank you” was not required.

“He (Krishna) personally conveyed the thanks on behalf of Indian government to me... I told him that I hope we get used to the new norm and that we require or deserve no thank you... I made them slightly comfortable. So this is the new norm and I think no thank you is required,” she said.

Krishna on Tuesday had thanked Pakistan for going “out of their way” in providing all possible assistance to passengers of the Air India flight that had made an emergency landing in Pakistan’s Nawabshah airport. A relief plane was then sent to Pakistan to bring back the passengers.