Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is also expected to arrive in Islamabad on the occasion of the fifth ministerial conference of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process, which is being jointly hosted by Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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But brief interaction between Nawaz and Modi in Paris this week has renewed hopes of some kind of rapprochement between the two hyphenated neighbours. The two leaders were then seen sitting on the same sofa and engaging in an animated discussion for a brief while.
India had been invited for the conference, which will be held on December 7 and 8.
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj may visit Pakistan next week to attend a meeting on Afghanistan, which will be held on December 9 in Islamabad, NDTV reported. Talks on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia meeting will focus on reviving talks between the two countries.
A bilateral meeting between Swaraj or Jaishankar with their Pakistani counterparts will afford Pakistan the opportunity to convey to its people that it has been able to discuss the Kashmir dispute with India, which was seemingly not given primacy in a press statement released in the Russian city of Ufa at the end of a Modi-Sharif meeting in July. “Doors of dialogue should open”. Soon after, National Security Advisor-level talks were scheduled.
The minister said the government was working with several Gulf countries to stop exploitation of Indian laborers in those countries.
“We always welcome these kinds of exchanges and dialogue between India and Pakistan”, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters yesterday when asked about the meeting.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought justice for a woman from Tamil Nadu whose arm was chopped off recently by her employer in Saudi Arabia. “I think this is a tactical move by the Indian government to show that we are making efforts to engage Pakistan”, Sibal said.
