Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s top foreign policy aide and India’s external affairs minister will hold a bilateral meeting on Thursday on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in Nepal.
Aziz and Swaraj will hold a bilateral meeting after 4:00 pm today in Pokhara, according to reports.
Speaking to reporters about his scheduled talks with Swaraj, the premier’s senior aide said, “We are always hopeful”.
Aziz and Swaraj travelled to the picturesque Pokhara city of Nepal for the Saarc Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting on March 16 and 17. Senior officials, including foreign secretaries of the two countries, accompanied them.
The bilateral meeting, if held, will provide an opportunity for the two sides to discuss the much-delayed talks between the foreign secretaries, who were to meet in Islamabad in January. The key foreign secretary-level talks are meant to draw up a roadmap for a series of meetings between the two countries on a range of issues, including Kashmir, peace and security, Siachen, Sir Creek, water, and trade and commerce.
The two neighbours apparently hit a deadlock in resuming the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue after the Pathankot airbase attack that India claimed was carried out by militants from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad militant group.