Modi, Sharif meet likely in Washington

US will host Nuclear Security Summit from March 31

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have yet another meeting with his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Washington DC in March or early April, if Islamabad takes action against plotters of the Pathankot attack.

Modi and Sharif are likely to attend the Nuclear Security Summit to be hosted by US President Barack Obama in Washington DC from March 31 to April 1. 

New Delhi and Islamabad are exploring possibility of a meeting between the two prime ministers on the sideline of the summit, sources told Deccan Herald on Tuesday.

Another Modi-Sharif meeting in Washington is likely to give new momentum to bilateral engagement, which came under a shadow after the January 2-5 attacks on Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab. 

New Delhi, however, made it clear that the onus for the meeting between the two prime ministers was on Islamabad and it could do so by taking further steps to bring to justice the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leaders and operatives, who had plotted and coordinated the terror attack.

Sources said that New Delhi was expecting some progress in Islamabad’s action against JeM and other terror outfits based in Pakistan within the next few weeks.

This could make the atmosphere conducive not only for the meeting between the two prime ministers, but also for talks between Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart A A Chaudhry in Islamabad.