Modi, while returning from his visit to Russian Federation and Afghanistan, made a surprise stopover in Lahore last evening.
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“We welcome the December 25 talks between PM Modi and PM Sharif in Lahore”.
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“Beyond the noise, a personal connect”.
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A close aide to Modi said the visit was a spontaneous decision by the prime minister and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and that it should not be seen as a sudden shift in India’s position. The visit coincided with Sharif’s birthday and the wedding of his granddaughter.
Amitabh Matto, an Indian foreign policy expert, described Modi’s birthday diplomacy visit as a “very positive step”.
Briefing the media after Nawaz-Modi meeting at Jati Umrah residence of Sharifs, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said: “PM Modi’s visit to Lahore was not a planned one”.
He (Modi) has finally concluded that there is no choice but to have dialogue with Pakistan.
The Wall Street Journal said Modi’s “gesture” was “likely to lend momentum to a tentative reconciliation process between the estranged, nuclear-armed neighbours”.
To a question about the duration of the visit, he said, “Leave aside the duration, whether brief or long, but it is a good omen for both the countries”. It is not an easy path ahead. After months of ups and downs there has been a thaw in the bilateral relations since Modi held talks with Sharif in Paris on November 30. Pakistan’s former high commissioner Shahid Malik told TOI there was complete consensus in Pakistan for improving relations with India.
The foreign secretaries of both nations are scheduled to meet in January.
“Such meetings have been taking place in the past, but have proven useless after some time”, he said in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan-controlled territory.
This was Modi’s first visit to Pakistan and the first by an Indian prime minister in 12 years.
“The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh believes that one day these parts, which have for historical reasons separated only 60 years ago, will again, through popular goodwill, come together and Akhand Bharat will be created”, he told a TV channel.
The chairman of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, Bilawal Bhutto, said in a tweet, “Constant engagement is the only way to resolve all outstanding issues”.
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India also wants Pakistan to bring to justice Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 168 people.
