Sunday, February 6 2005 13:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India's commitment to assist in rebuilding of Afghanistan and carrying forward the composite dialogue with Pakistan, involving enhanced people-to-people contacts, is expected to be reinforced during External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh's three-day visit to the two neighbouring countries from February 15.

Singh will make a brief visit to Kabul on February 15 before flying the same day to Islamabad for talks with Pakistani leaders.

New Delhi is attaching special significance to his trip to Kabul, the first high-level one by an Indian leader after the recent Afghan elections.

Under the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) regime, Jaswant Singh had visited Kabul as External Affairs Minister in December, 2002 for the installation of the interim Government headed by Hamid Karzai. Recognising the importance New Delhi held for its ties with Afghanistan, Yashwant Sinha too made a trip to that country after taking over from Jaswant Singh.

Natwar Singh will hold wide-ranging discussions with President Hamid Karzai and other leaders covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations besides exchanging views on important developments in the region as also multilateral issues.

The Minister has also convened a meeting of India's Consuls General in four Afghan cities to assess the post election scenario.

Ahead of his visit, Singh said India holds Karzai as a "special friend". The Minister said during the visit he would get an overview from Afghan leaders on what was happening in the region.

Natwar Singh said his trip is aimed at further strengthening India's relations with Afghanistan. "The intense engagement in our relations goes back to centuries," he said. Terming the Afghan elections as a "major event", he said it was quite remarkable that women voted in large numbers.

Singh will hold extensive parleys with his Afghan counterpart Abdullah Abdullah. One of the issues that is expected to come up is that of transit rights for Indian goods to Afghanistan via Pakistan.

Washington has conveyed to India that it would use its goods offices to facilitate such movement.

The two sides will review the progress in the Zeranj-Delaram road link. India has been in the forefront on rehabilitation and rebuilding efforts underway in the war-ravaged country and is one of the largest aid donors.

Singh is likely to seek Kabul's views on reports of re-emergence of Taliban and al-Qaeda activists in some areas.

Pakistan's "gameplan" in Afghanistan is another area on which New Delhi would like to have the assessment from Afghan leaders.

From Kabul, Singh will fly to Islamabad, the first bilateral visit by an Indian External Affairs Minister in 17 years. The last visit was by P V Narasimha Rao in 1988 when he was Foreign Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Government.

A comprehensive review of the Composite Dialogue process is expected to be undertaken during Singh's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri.

Notwithstanding the failure of talks with Pakistan on the Baglihar hydro-power project in Jammu and Kashmir and on some other issues, India has stressed that the ongoing dialogue process should stay on course and not be deflected.

Further confidence building measures and stepped up people-to-people contacts are well anchored in Government's policy to pursue the peace process, official sources said.

New Delhi has taken exception to Pakistan's decision to seek World Bank's arbitration to resolve differences over construction of Baglihar project, saying such a move was not justified.

Though Pakistan has shown its reluctance to it, Singh may elicit its view on India's proposal to establish five designated points along the Line of Control and the international border for interaction between divided families on both sides of Kashmir.

The five points are Mendhar, Poonch, Suchetgarh, Uri and Tangdhar.

Since the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart could not take place this month in Dhaka following the postponement of the SAARC summit, the two Foreign Ministers will have the opportunity to discuss some of the issues that were expected to be then taken up.