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NSAs of India and Pakistan meets in Bangkok

But there will be a bilateral meeting between Swaraj and Sartaj Aziz, adviser on foreign affairs to the Pakistani prime minister, expected on 9 December.

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The meeting comes in wake of reports that India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is likely to visit Pakistan next week.

Mr Aziz, while talking to reporters in Islamabad, said Ms Swaraj is arriving in Pakistan on Tuesday to attend the “Heart of Asia” Conference and during her visit will also call on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

He said at least it is a good beginning and the deadlock in negotiations is removed to some extent and hopefully this process will move forward.

The conference will provide opportunity for Pakistan to further mend its relations with neighbouring Afghanistan and India, observers said. The talks could also lay the groundwork for visit of Indian PM to Islamabad to attend SAARC Summit next year, the sources said and added the NSAs would also meet again.

However, on Monday, the Opposition parties Congress, Janata Dal (U), NDA ally Shiv Sena and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha criticised the Government for holding talks with Pakistan without taking Parliament into confidence.

“It was agreed to carry forward the constrictive engagement”, said the statement. This will be the first such visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan since 2012 as the ties between two South Asian neighbours had hit a roadblock. ET had reported last week that Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit had met NSA AK Doval in mid-November to re-launch the dialogue, before a tete-atete between Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Paris on November 30 took many by surprise.

The Bangkok meeting is widely seen as a breakthrough in relations, especially in light of the fact that the two countries had called off planned talks in September due to Pakistani requests to meet with pro-independence figures in the disputed Kashmir region.

Bangkok was chosen for the venue on Sunday because it was a convenient location for both sides, an Indian foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

An Indian Border Security Force (BSF) soldier patrols along the Pargwal area of India-Pakistan worldwide border in Akhnoor, Jammu and Kashmir.

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In Ufa the two leaders had made a decision to resume the peace dialogue that eventually got derailed, with the Kashmir separatists being the flashpoint and thus the cancellation of the NSA level talks.

India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj smiles while addressing the India Africa business forum in New Delhi India