India’s foreign secretary S. Jaishankar (pictured) met his Pakistani counterpart in Islamabad for the first foreign secretary-level meeting since India called it off last year after Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi held consultations with Kashmiri separatists. Photo: AFP
Islamabad: After a seven-month hiatus, India and Pakistan on Tuesday renewed foreign secretary-level talks, as India’s S. Jaishankar met his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhary in Islamabad as part of “Saarc yatra”.
Jaishankar, who arrived in Islamabad from Dhaka on Tuesday morning, was received by Indian High Commissioner T.C.A. Raghavan at the airport. The foreign secretary met Chaudhary at the foreign office in Islamabad, the first foreign secretary-level meeting since India called it off last year after Pakistan’s high commissioner in New Delhi held consultations with Kashmiri separatists.
Jaishankar said that he was happy to be visiting Pakistan and that he looks forward to having substantial and meaningful negotiations with Pakistani officials, Dawn reported.
Pakistan has already expressed hope that the talks would lead to resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue. On its part, India has maintained that it will discuss the ways to take forward the “process of normalization” between the two countries.
Jaishankar, who started his “Saarc yatra” on Sunday with Bhutan and visited Bangladesh on Monday, will also call on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif later before flying out to Afghanistan on Wednesday.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc)—an economic and geopolitical grouping of eight countries located in South Asia—includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka as its members. PTI
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