×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

India, Pak to explore resuming formal talks

Last Updated 25 February 2015, 18:26 IST

Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet in Islamabad on Tuesday next to explore possibilities of resumption of bilateral talks.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday announced that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar would commence his “Saarc Yatra” with a tour to Bhutan next Sunday. The tour would also take him to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively. The dates of his visit to other South Asian nations were being worked out through diplomatic channels, Syed Akbaruddin, official spokesman of the MEA, said in New Delhi.

Jaishankar, who took over as Foreign Secretary on January 29, is visiting all the member nations of the South Asian Associations for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), as he was directed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But it is his visit to Islamabad which is likely to assume special significance, as it may lead to resumption of bilateral ties, which remained suspended since January 2013.

Jaishankar will meet Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry and the two diplomats are expected to explore possibilities of restarting formal bilateral engagement between New Delhi and Islamabad, apart from discussing Saarc issues.

New Delhi on Tuesday indicated that it was ready to discuss all bilateral issues with Islamabad, including the Jammu and Kashmir, albeit within the framework set by the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999 and without any role of any “third party”.

Jaishankar is set to travel to Islamabad just six months after Modi government called off his predecessor Sujatha Singh’s proposed visit to Islamabad.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 25 February 2015, 18:26 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT