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Vajpayee may visit Pakistan before November: Sondhi

Deepshikha Ghosh in New Delhi

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is expected to visit Pakistan "much before November", according to M L Sondhi, chairman of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research.

Sondhi said Vajpayee told him this when he met him at Agra to present the recommendations of a meeting of Indian and Pakistani social scientists organised by the ICSSR in New Delhi before the Agra summit.

Sondhi told the Indo-Asian News Service on Wednesday that National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra also "informally" told him that Vajpayee could travel to Islamabad before November.

Vajpayee has accepted President Pervez Musharraf's invitation to visit Pakistan, but External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said no dates have been fixed.

"Vajpayee and Musharraf have established a very good equation and they like each other," said Sondhi, who met both in Agra. "Musharraf told me the ICSSR proposals for boosting friendship between the two countries are very realistic."

The two leaders could meet at least twice before that -- on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York in September and the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation summit expected to be held this year in Kathmandu.

Indo-Asian News Service

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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