Modi wishes Sharif on his birthday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished his Pakistani counterpart M Nawaz Sharif on his 67th birthday on Sunday via Twitter.

“Birthday wishes to Pakistan PM Mr. Nawaz Sharif,” Modi tweeted. “I pray for his long and healthy life.”

Modi greeted Sharif even as New Delhi’s relations with Islamabad worsened further over the past 12 months with no indications of an early thaw.

However, Sharif did not respond to Modi’s tweet. His daughter Maryam tweeted to thank Modi. “Thank u for your kind prayers. Shared yr tweet with my father who deeply appreciates the gesture & conveys his best,” she tweeted.

Modi had on December 25 last year made “a surprise visit” to Lahore to greet Sharif on the occasion of his birthday. The prime minister had also driven to the ancestral residence of his counterpart in Pakistan and joined the celebrations on the occasion of the wedding of his granddaughter.

Modi had gifted Sharif a pink turban on the occasion. Modi’s “surprise visit” to greet Sharif had been perceived to be a diplomatic coup and it raised the hopes of an early thaw in Indo-Pak relations.

Just about a fortnight before the prime minister’s visit to Lahore, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had visited Islamabad and joined Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz to announce the decision to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue.