New Delhi, July 23:This will be the first meeting between Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan and Nirmala Sitharaman, Indian Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs. 

Although, the agenda for the meeting is still unclear, the two are expected to be discussing free trade between the two neighbouring countries.

Before the ministerial meeting, the meeting of South Asia Free Trade Area (Safta) committee of experts will be held on July 22-23. 

Ministers and high officials of Saarc region will participate in both meetings where the bureaucracy will outline details.

The meeting is also being welcomed by Track 2 process where recently in its resolution, the Chaophraya Dialogue organised by the Jinnah Institute (JI) and the Australia India Institute (AII) “hoped that the commerce ministers would use the opportunity provided by the meeting of Safta Ministerial Council in Thimpu on July 2014, to arrive at an early conclusion of discussions on the subject”. 

Safta is an agreement reached on January 6, 2004, at the 12th Saarc Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan. It created a free trade area of 1.8 billion people in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

The seven foreign ministers of the region signed a framework agreement on Safta to reduce customs duties of all traded goods to zero by the year 2016.