ISLAMABAD: There will be a ‘handshake’ between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi but a little chance of a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a regional summit later this month in Nepal.
The two prime ministers are scheduled to attend the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in Katmandu on November 26 and 27.
“There will be a formal handshake but no bilateral meeting is planned as yet,” said a senior government official. “At this stage neither side has shown any interest in arranging a bilateral meeting between the two leaders.”
Recently, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi said the onus of resuming the dialogue process was now on India. “India would now have to make the first move to start the stalled peace talks,” he told the BBC Urdu in an interview.
However, signals coming from New Delhi were not encouraging as the Indian external affairs ministry rejected reports regarding the possibility of a Nawaz-Modi meeting in Kathmandu. “There is no such proposal from any side,” said the ministry spokesperson.
Internews
