Pal, who succeeded Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, was among the seven new envoys of different countries who presented their credentials separately at a colourful ceremony at the Presidential office in Islamabad.
Menon is expected to press India's case for allowing it to have civil nuclear cooperation with the international community. He is likely to cite India's impeccable track record on the non-proliferation front despite being a non-signatory to the NPT.
The two sides also discussed issues related to release of prisoners, trade, confidence-building measures and other matters listed under the composite dialogue process.
Top CIA officials met Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Monday and are understood to have discussed evidence of Pakistani involvement in the July 11 Mumbai blasts.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon arrived in Beijing on Sunday to attend a meeting of G-8 'outreach countries', becoming the first top Indian diplomat to visit China since the outbreak of the Tibet unrest. The G-5 meeting in Bejing is a multilateral consultation exercise on economic and trade issues and climate change, among others, that major developing nations wish to take up with G-8. Menon is expected to meet Chinese officials and discuss the of bilateral issues.
It will end India's nuclear isolation, he noted. Ahead of his visit here, Burns said last week that 90 per cent of the work has been completed and he would be making the "final effort".
Before going in for talks, Burns told media persons that the two countries had come a long way in the talks on the agreement since the negotiations began two years ago.
"We'd like to get to the bottom of it," said Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
Menon will undertake a two-day visit from April 30 during which he will hold talks with US Under Secretary Nicholas Burns on the 123 agreement amid indications that Washington was 'frustrated' at the speed of the negotiations.
On his first visit to Washington after taking over as foreign secretary, Menon on Wednesday had a three-hour-long discussion with Burns, who is the key negotiator for the nuclear deal.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will open the 5th US-India High Technology Cooperation Group hosted by the US-India Business Council at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington DC on February 22.
Mulford is understood to have conveyed the US' displeasure over the uncertainty that has come to surround the crucial initiative between the two countries. In his third meeting in four days with leaders and officials, the US envoy is believed to have sought to know what the government is planning to do to push the deal that is being vigorously opposed by the Left Front. The meeting came a day after Singh said the "process of evolving a meaningful consensus is still on."
Keen to conclude the civil nuclear deal by the year-end, India and the US will hold another round of high level talks in July to sort out differences that have been nagging the negotiations for months.
Pakistan on Wednesday informed India that its request for consular access to Sarabjit Singh, sentenced to death for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Pakistan, was being examined.
As the United States continues to nudge it to conclude the civil nuclear deal at the earliest, India on Thursday said it is aware of the time-table but negotiations take its own time.
shiv Shankar Menon said India had a very meaningful relationship with the US on counter terrorism.
The key negotiators of the two sides will aim at resolving differences on aspects like reprocessing right and continuity of civil nuclear cooperation if India were to conduct an atomic test in future.
They alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance was being used to "victimise especially those Indian men who are Muslim and women who dare to exercise their freedom of choice".
Describing Greg Chappell as "a good captain and a great cricketer," former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan has backed his selection as India's new cricket coach.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday held talks with US President Barack Obama, the first bilateral summit meeting after nearly three years.
The Prime Minister's Office on Thursday night rubbished as "mischievous" the reports that a statement on the killing of five Indian soldiers on the Line of Control was changed at its behest. "Such allegations being made are mischievous and have no basis," a PMO spokesman said.
Riaz Mohammad Khan will replace Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, who was asked to leave India after the attack on Parliament.
Six months after coming to power, the National Democratic Alliance government on Monday named National Security Adviser Ajit Doval as its special representative on boundary talks with China, paving the way for the dialogue to resume at this level.
'Both have a very nationalistic view of foreign policy.' 'They think they are shrewd and clever diplomats.'
'You can see that in Chinese behaviour in the Yellow Sea, you can see it in their behaviour towards Taiwan, you can see it in their behaviour towards Hong Kong, you can see it on our border as well.'
The central government should provide for free vaccination to all Indian citizens and greatly ramp up RT-PCR testing in both rural and urban areas, a group of former civil servants said on Thursday in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India's new High Commissioner to Pakistan, T C A Raghavan, on Monday said measures should be taken to address the menace of terrorism.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday took stock of the preparedness of the country's nuclear arsenal with the top security brass, including chiefs of the three services.
National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon arrived in Colombo on Monday to hold crucial talks on the controversial 13th amendment on devolution of power in the Tamil-dominated northern province and a trilateral maritime security treaty with Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
China on Tuesday dismissed reports of fresh incursions by its troops into India as "routine patrolling" and asserted that both countries have a very effective and smooth mechanism to handle border incidents.
Several officers in the intelligence agencies want the role of the National Investigation Agency clearly defined to avoid lack of cooperation between the Centre and states.
China has invited India to be part of its new initiative to build a Maritime Silk Road which it says is aimed at improving connectivity and trade among Asian nations through the sea on the lines of ancient Silk Route.
A fresh probe into the Pathribal encounter case is not ruled out in view of the major controversy that has erupted after the Army gave a clean chit to its personnel in the infamous incident which took place in Kashmir in 2000.
Pakistan's polity does not have the capacity to sustain a normal relationship with India, former foreign secretary and national security advisor Shivshankar Menon has said as he characterized relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors as "managed hostility".
Ignoring diplomatic protocol, United States Secretary of State John Kerry had telephoned National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon to discuss the row over the arrest of an Indian diplomat after he was told that his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid was busy in Parliament.
Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh was on Monday suddenly called in by Defence Minister A K Antony to brief him about the ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the Line of Control, days after the prime minister voiced concern over the handling of Keran operations.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday left for home after an overnight halt here while on his way back from the US where he held talks with President Barack Obama and met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, besides addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
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