that a series of meetings and interactions will take place before the Pakistan Foreign Minister Mr Shah Mehmood Qureshi visits New Delhi some times in the middle of this year. She said the intention is to chart a way forward and engage with each other in a comprehensive way to discuss all issues including the outstanding ones.

She said that a lot of activity and interaction that had been put in abeyance for many months will be resumed . On the sequence of meetings , Mrs Rao said that things that need to be done quickly will be done first and on issues for which more preparations is needed to be done will be taken up later but all issues will be discussed. These include peace and security , Jammu and Kashmir, confidence building measures, people to people exchanges, narcotics, sir creek ,  Siachen, treade and commerce.

Meanwhile The meeting of the 33rd SAARC Council of Ministers got under way here with a call for closer cooperation amongst the member countries and effective implementation of the decisions taken in various areas by the regional organization. In his inaugural address , the Chief Guest Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigmi Y Thinley reiterated his conviction that SAARC can be an inspiring force to make South Asia a hub of global trade  culture and ideas.