With the new government taking charge in Islamabad, the stalled Indo-Pak composite dialogue process will resume on May 20 with the foreign secretary-level talks to be followed by a meeting between foreign ministers.
Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon will travel to Islamabad to hold talks with his counterpart Riaz Mohammad Khan to wind up the fourth round of composite dialogue.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi will hold parleys the next day to review the progress made in the discussions.
The composite dialogue, which has made significant progress since it was launched in 2004, had been stalled for several months due to political turmoil in Pakistan.
The two sides concluded talks on respective eight issues under the fourth round of composite dialogue in October 2007.
However, the foreign secretary-level talks to wrap up the fourth round of talks and launch the fifth round could not take place due to political turmoil in Pakistan.
At the upcoming meeting, the two sides will review the progress made on all the eight issues under the fourth round of composite dialogue and set the time table for the fifth round.
Mukherjee and Qureshi had last week decided that the dialogue process should be resumed at the earliest.
After the government headed by Yousuf Raza Gillani assumed office in Pakistan last month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had conveyed a desire for transforming the bilateral ties into the "best ever".
Noting that an "opportunity" had come for transforming the bilateral relations, he had hoped the new Pakistani leadership will work with India in putting the "past behind" for "enduring peace" and collective prosperity of the two countries.
Dr Singh said he saw a "ray of hope" as he noted that the leaders of main political parties in Pakistan, in their first pronouncements after the elections, had spoken of their interest in developing close relations and working with India to bring about durable peace.
The prime minister had hoped that the two countries would work expeditiously towards "agreed solutions of pending issues".
Dr Singh hoped Gillani would build on the initiatives taken by the then prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif as also President Pervez Musharraf to improve the bilateral relations.
