Indian media quoted sources as saying that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will visit Islamabad next month to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhry.
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Christmas Eve Forecast: Record-shattering warmth today
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in some parts of the country, but in others it feels more like a typical spring day. Green Christmas wins out this year with record-breaking temperatures making for a holiday that could get Heat Miser singing.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (left) greets his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, with an honor guard at the airport in Lahore, Pakistan.
Two Arrested In Latest Counter-Terror Raids In Western Sydney
A police source told the ABC that the Merrylands home of Salihy raided this morning was also raided earlier this month. Police say their investigation disrupted the terror plot.
The New York Times, which quite often has been critical of the Prime Minister, while underscoring the significance of Modi’s impromptu trip to Lahore said the Indian leader in the past has moved from one policy to the other and described it as “a diplomatic dance”. “For a better relationship, you need to avoid hype, don’t let pressure groups dictate every meeting India and Pakistan make”.
Turkish forces and PKK engage in intense clashes
The three-decade conflict between Turkish security forces and the PKK rebels have claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people. Turkey and Russia have been at odds since Ankara downed a Russian jet last month saying it violated its airspace.
After returning to Delhi, Modi said he was “personally touched” by Sharif’s gesture of welcoming him at the airport and seeing him off. He also called “very touching” Sharif’s affection towards BJP veteran and former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
On his way back to New Delhi from Moscow on Friday, Prime ministers Modi and Sharif met at the latter’s residence Raiwind Palace, the ancestral home of the Sharifs, in Lahore, where he also discussed Indo-Pak relations with him.
Union Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Ravishankar Prasad on Saturday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Lahore was a unique initiative to strengthen people to people contacts.
Only Sharif’s brother, Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, and Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar were part of the “cordial” meeting between the two prime ministers. Sharif said he was in Lahore.
In Kabul, Modi had inaugurated the new building of the Afghan Parliament built by India.
He described Modi’s stopover as a “goodwill visit” and said the two leaders discussed the comprehensive dialogue which the two countries have recently chose to start.
The Indian rehabilitation efforts in Afghanistan have been troubling Islamabad which supports Taliban’s efforts to destabilise the Kabul government.
Heaping praises over Prime Minister Modi, Akbar said, “He is, in fact, a master of the transformative moment, we have seen it in the manner in which his invitation to the SAARC leaders in 2014”.
In a tweet, Congress leader Manish Tewari said, “Whispers are floating that a steel oligarch who ostensibly brokered a meeting between Modi & Nawaz in Thimpu is in Lahore now Any guesses”.
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“Prime Minister has never cared for the poor and the farmers”.
