Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal ruled out having any formal or informal talks with his Pakistani counterpart Riaz H. Khokar on the sidelines of the two-day SAARC Standing Committee meeting which began here today. ‘‘Neither can there be any formal talks nor informal talks. India has asked Pakistan to take certain steps and talks are not possible unless Pakistan convinces India on that,’’ Sibal said when asked about the possibility of the meeting. He said India would present its views on convening the postponed SAARC summit in Islamabad when the matter comes up for discussions during the meeting. Besides India and Pakistan, foreign secretaries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka are participating in the fourth session of South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Standing Committee meeting. Earlier Pakistan foreign secretary had said that he was open for a dialogue with Sibal on the sidelines of the meeting. On the first day of their deliberations, the foreign secretaries discussed the budget for the saarc regional centres, reports presented by technical committees, South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), and South Asian Technical Fund. Inaugurating the session, Nepal PM Surya Bahadur Thapa said there was an urgent need to negotiate the framework of the SAFTA before the next summit. (PTI)
