Seven months after India called off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan, Pakistan High Commissioner in India Abdul Basit has met newly-appointed Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar.
Though official sources said that Pakistan envoy’s meeting was a “courtesy call” on the new Indian foreign secretary, the two diplomats reportedly discussed ways to put the dialogue process back on track during the meeting which lasted for about 40 minutes.
The meeting comes a day after Indian State Minister for Petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad on the sidelines of a multilateral meeting to finalise the consortium leader for expeditious implementation of the 1,800-kilometer-long Turkmanistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline project which has been pending for almost over a decade.
Though the Pakistani envoy conveyed to the Indian foreign secretary that PM Sharif’s foreign policy’s cornerstone was to build a peaceful neighbourhood for the sake of regional economic development, India has resolutely told Pakistan that a dialogue process can be resumed only after addressing “core concerns” of terrorism.
However, earlier during a visit to India, Pakistan’s former National Security Adviser (NSA) Major General (r) Mahmud Ali Durrani met Indian NSA Ajit Doval and Indian Foreign Secretary Jaishankar said that the Pakistani NSA adviser was returning with an impression that Indian PM Modi would “like to move forward” on the dialogue.
Officials of the Indian External Affairs Ministry said they were attaching high priorities to the TAPI gas project in which Pakistan is an important player.
“The very fact that India has had regular ministerial representation at the TAPI steering committee meeting bears testimony to the importance attached by the (Indian) government to this project despite the apprehensions about the geo-political situation and security scenario involving the project,” an official statement said.
Neighbors should each other and resolve their conflicts with negotiations. That's the only way to progress and to save the world. Problems keep coming if we don't talk each other. animation resume
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