Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz arrived in Sri Lanka on Sunday to discuss "a gamut" of bilateral issues before heading to India for talks on the Kashmir dispute. Aziz will also travel to the Maldives as chairman of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a seven-member grouping that promotes economic cooperation. He is to arrive on Tuesday in India, where he is expected to meet with his counterpart, Manmohan Singh, and former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In Sri Lanka, Aziz will discuss a "whole gamut of bilateral relations, besides exchanging views on regional and international issues," Pakistan's High Commission said in a statement. Pakistan and Sri Lanka enjoy cordial relations, and both want to boost two-way trade from last year's US$146.24 million (¤112.32 million). The two countries are negotiating a free trade agreement. Before leaving Pakistan, Aziz told reporters he expected to hold a "substantive dialogue" with Indian leaders on their dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir and other issues. "The relations between Pakistan and India affect the effectiveness of SAARC," he was quoted as saying by the state-run news agency, the Associated Press of Pakistan.
