E-Paper
Sushma Swaraj likely to visit Pakistan next week: Report
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is likely to visit Pakistan next week for a regional conference on Afghanistan, a report from Islamabad said on Thursday.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is likely to visit Pakistan next week for a regional conference on Afghanistan, a report from Islamabad said on Thursday.
PTI quoted an unnamed official in Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) official as saying foreign that ministers of different countries including India have been invited for a conference on Afghanistan.
“We hope for maximum participation, though some of the countries like India have not so far confirmed high-level participation,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan is co-hosting a ministerial-level conference on December 9 to discuss regional cooperation on Afghanistan and officials of about 27 countries are expected to attend it.
Another FO official told the agency there was “greater possibility” that Swaraj would come to Pakistan for the regional conference following the brief interaction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart in Paris on the sidelines of the UN climate summit.
Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper quoted a senior official as saying that Swaraj was “highly likely” to attend the meeting.
The Express Tribune quoted officials at Pakistan’s Foreign Office and an Indian diplomat that “Swaraj will most likely attend the conference following this week’s unscheduled meeting between the prime ministers of Pakistan and India in Paris”.
Modi and Sharif had a brief meeting during which they warmly held hands before sitting down for a chat. The Indian side described the encounter as a “brief exchange of courtesies” while Pakistan called it a “good” meeting.
Swaraj’s possible visit may also indicate breaking of the impasse created in Indo-Pak ties after the cancellation of a meeting between the NSAs of the two countries in August amid mutual blame game.
(With PTI inputs)
