Qingdao (East China): External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh will have a very busy day today (Jun 21, 2004) with a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts, the most important of which will be face-to-face parleys with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri.

Singh, who is in China to participate in the 22-member Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) will have a "working lunch" with Kasuri on the sidelines of the meeting during which the entire gamut of bilateral ties will be discussed, sources said.

Singh and Kasuri are expected to review the outcome of the two-day expert-level dialogue between the two countries on Nuclear Confidence Building Measures, which concluded in New Delhi yesterday (Jun 20, 2004).

Apart from meeting with Kasuri, Singh will also have important bilateral meetings with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing, who is also the host of the ACD Foreign Minister's meeting in Qingdao, this booming coastal East Chinese city.

This is also the first meeting between Singh and Li. New Delhi said that stepping up relations with Beijing would be high on its agenda.

In the afternoon, Singh will meet with his counterparts from Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Oman, official sources said. The meetings will briefly review India's relations with these countries and step by future ties with them, the sources added.