The Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has already set the tone of the discussion in his bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar at the convention centre in Gan, one of the islands at this atoll.

The two leaders agreed that terrorism was a threat to both the countries and there was a need to reduce trust deficit between India and Pakistan

They also discussed bilateral issues and the need to boost trade between the two countries. Krishna has termed the discussion as moving towards a positive direction.

Significantly, Krishna and Khar met thrice on Wednesday. Once over coffee and the second time over lunch on the sidelines of SAARC ministerial meeting.

The Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday morning.

However according to the Indian Foreign Secretary Rajan Mathai there is no separate discussion for reconstruction of the war ravaged Afghanistan. Afghanistan is left to take benefits from whatever concessions would be made for the least developed countries (LDCs) for the region like small development projects, connectivity, capacity building, SARRC Development Fund, combating climate change.

AfPak is the epicenter of terrorism in South Asia. Discussions of Afghanistan is significant as the NATO-ISAF prepares to drawdown its combat role in this country by the end of 2014. Thereafter Afghanistan will have depend much on its regional countries.

In the recent Istanbul Conference on Afghanistan, Krishna had admitted “the role that regional countries could play in bringing stability to Afghanistan has not been given adequate importance.” He suggested that Afghanistan’s regional neighbours and friends can work with the wider international community to provide Afghanistan a helping hand to assist in its transition and beyond.

The Afghan President Hamid Karzai has initiated the process of negotiating peace with the Taliban leaders. Some recent high profile attacks in Afghanistan, including the assassination of a former president and leader of the Afghan High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani are ascribed to the Haqqani network based in Pakistan. However, Pakistan has denied their presence on their soil.

“Our hope is that, with help from our brothers in Pakistan, we will manage to wean away the Taliban leadership from some of the long-established networks of support they enjoy outside Afghanistan and integrate them into the peace process,” Karzai said at the Istanbul Conference.

Afghanistan is a new member of SAARC and its strategic importance is acknowledged as one connecting not just Central and South Asia, but also Eurasia and the Gulf countries. Afghanistan was a Special Invitee to the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of Governments in St Petersburg in Russia and its role was recognized there. India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia are observers to SCO meeting and are yet to be inducted as full members.

Boosting intra-SAARC trade through activation of South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) is one of the main agenda for the 17th SAARC Summit. At present intra-SAARC trade stands at $ 1.3 billion annually. The theme of the Summit is “Building Bridges” implying the importance of enhanced connectivity for socio-economic development. The theme is also in consonance with the observance of the current decade as the – SAARC Decade of Intra-Regional Connectivity.

There are some signs for improvement in India-Pakistan trade relations with Pakistan agreeing in-principle to accord most favoured nation (MFN) Status to India, which the latter had accorded to the former about 15 years ago. Intra-SAARC trade can flourish not only with the betterment of trade relations between India and Pakistan, but also beyond with Afghanistan. Afghanistan can help in boosting SAARC trade with Central Asia, Eurasia and Gulf countries. Similarly Bangladesh and Myanmar (which not yet a SAARC member) can boost trade connectivity of South Asia with the ASEAN.

The 17th SAARC Summit has on the agenda for discussion on rail and road connectivity. But connectivity and trade can flourish only when the region is free from terrorism and conflict.

Four multilateral agreements are likely to be signed at the 17th SAARC Summit like Agreement on Implementation of Regional Standards, Agreement on Multilateral Arrangement on Recognition of Conformity Assessment, Agreement on Rapid Response to Natural Disasters and Agreement for Establishment of SAARC Seed Bank.

The Indian Prime Minister is slated to have bilateral meetings with his counterparts and sign some bilateral agreements. He is slated to meet the Maldives President on November 12 and is expected to sign some bilateral agreements.