Swaraj’s Pakistan visit will come on a positive note after a secret meeting between Indian and Pakistani NSAs in Bangkok on Sunday, with which the neighbouring countries crossed the main hurdles for Indo-Pak talks since a year ago – discussion on Kashmir and meeting of Pakistani officials with Hurriyat separatists.
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Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shahryar Khan said on Monday India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj might weigh in on the Pakistan-India series during her Islamabad visit tomorrow. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said that having a dialogue with Pakistan was pointless as the country’s main goal was to destroy India by sponsoring terrorism.
To a question, Sartaj Aziz said negotiations were only the option to address all long-standing disputes between the two countries peacefully.
“We might face difficulty in the logistic arrangements for the series if India further delays its reply”, he added.
“Both these engagements on the sidelines of the Afghanistan conference will be in the nature of courtesy meetings as Pakistan is the host nation”, the Indian daily said, quoting government sources.
She will call on Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and meet his adviser on Foreign Affairs Aziz on the sidelines of the Afghan meet on Wednesday.
Sushma’s visit comes three years after former External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna travelled to Islamabad in 2012 when the countries also inked a visa liberalisation pact.
“There is confusion on Modi’s policy on Pakistan”.
Before Paris, Modi and Sharif had held bilateral meeting in Russian city of Ufa where they decided that their NSAs would meet to discuss all “terror-related” issues. Until India will shun its meaningless rhetoric of integral part and accepts the seriousness of the Kashmir issue, till then India-Pakistan dialogues will yield nothing concrete.
India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj smiles while addressing the India Africa business forum in New Delhi, India, October 28, 2015.
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Scheduled talks in August between the South Asian rivals respective national security advisers had been called off by Pakistan at the last minute, over India’s insistence that dialogue focus on Pakistan-based militant groups fighting Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region.
