The Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan may meet
for the first time after the Pathankot attack in Kathmandu, instead of
Islamabad, official sources suggested on Wednesday.
The
meeting, put off from January 14 this year, is yet to be rescheduled.
Officials say it is unlikely to be scheduled in the next week. As a
result, S. Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart could meet, for the
first time, at the SAARC meeting for senior officials on March 15.
Calling reports of a proposed meeting in Islamabad “all in the realm of speculation,” a senior official told
The Hindu
that the Foreign Secretary was expected to attend the SAARC standing
committee meeting, while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj would
attend the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting on March 17, where she is
expected to meet Pakistan Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz. However,
officials said no bilateral meeting was scheduled yet.
The
status of the talks was discussed by India’s new High Commissioner to
Pakistan Gautam Bhambawale and Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday.
Data that may be helpful:
Important Points: - The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and geopolitical organisation of eight countries that are primarily located in South Asia or the Indian subcontinent.[4] The SAARC Secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- Pakistan will host the 19th summit of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Islamabad in 2016.
- The 18th SAARC Summit was held at the Nepalese capital Kathmandu from November 26 to November 27, 2014 and was attended by the prime ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, the presidents of the Afghanistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. The motto was ‘Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity’
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