New Delhi: India and Pakistan were very near to a framework agreement on the Kashmir issue through back-channel talks during the Congress-led regime, former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said Wednesday, and suggested that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should appoint a confidant for such talks.

Interacting with a select group of media persons here about his forthcoming book titled "Neither hawk, nor dove", Kasuri said the new governments in India and Pakistan can take forward the framework by giving it a new name-tag.