Islamabad is placed on high alert as the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrive in Pakistan’s federal capital on Tuesday to attend a regional conference on Afghanistan.
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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.
Talking to reporters after her arrival, she said, “It is a crucial conference [Heart of Asia] that I have come to attend”.
Swaraj is leading an Indian delegation to Islamabad for talks on Afghanistan, India’s foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup had said yesterday on Twitter.
The foreign office said the theme of the meeting, jointly hosted by Pakistan and Afghanistan, is ‘Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process: Enhanced cooperation for countering security threats and promoting connectivity in the Heart of Asia region’.
Sunday’s meeting in Bangkok followed the impromptu meeting of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan in Paris on the sidelines of the Conference of Parties (CoP) 21 climate summit on November 30.
The joint statement said the two countries had “agreed to carry forward the constructive engagement”.
Syed Ali Geelani further said that 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. “At least some issues would be discussed and they might set the agenda for future talks, nothing concrete would come out in these talks”, says Agha.
While Swaraj tries to make headway with Pakistan in Islamabad, the U.S. has said that Pakistan can not distinguish between terror outfits.
But four months later the talks are back on – Ms Swaraj becomes the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in three years. During her visit, she will be meet Advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz and will “focus on the resumption of composite dialogue process”.
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Earlier, talks between the NSAs of India and Pakistan, scheduled for 23 and 24 August, were cancelled after the two sides were deadlocked over Islamabad’s insistence on a meeting with Kashmiri separatist leaders despite New Delhi’s “advice” to the contrary.
