SAARC summit: India and Pakistan keep hopes of Modi-Nawaz Sharif meet alive

In August, Singh had cancelled a meeting with Chaudhary after Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi Abdul Basit met Hurriyat leaders.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen greeting Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif while Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa and Mauritius PM Navin Ramgoolam look on during the oath taking ceremony of the BJP led government in New Delhi in May 2014. (Source: Express photo by Neeraj Priyadarshi)

India and Pakistan on Sunday kept the door ajar for a possible meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif here, with both New Delhi and Islamabad sending out the right signals ahead of the SAARC summit that gets under way on November 26.

In New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin did not rule out the possibility of a meeting between Modi and Sharif as he said that India is for “cooperative and peaceful ties” with Pakistan. The Prime Minister is keen “to have meaningful dialogues with as many south Asian colleagues as possible”, he said. “This would mean taking into account all aspects of relationships.”

Akbaruddin said the schedule of the bilateral meetings is being finalised, “brick by brick” and it is a “work in progress”. “Our intent is to have meaningful dialogues,” he said.

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In Islamabad, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said that “on the sidelines of the event, the Prime Minister (Sharif) will meet other leaders of SAARC countries to discuss issues of bilateral and regional interest.”

This came on a day Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh met her Pakistan counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary at the SAARC Standing Committee of Foreign Secretaries.

While there was no official word on whether Singh and Chaudhary discussed any bilateral agenda on the sidelines, a Nepal government official told The Indian Express that they were focused on the “ambitious SAARC agenda” — on poverty alleviation, eradication of illiteracy and connectivity in terms of rail, road and power grid — during the two-day Standing Committee meeting which concludes on Monday.

In August, Singh had cancelled a meeting with Chaudhary after Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi Abdul Basit met Hurriyat leaders. Relations have been strained over the issue in the past three months.

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After the Foreign Secretaries meeting, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz are expected to take part in the Foreign Ministers’ meeting on November 25.

India, meanwhile, conveyed to Nepal that Modi’s proposed visits to Janakpur, Muktinath and Lumbini have been cancelled. Modi is now expected to reach Kathmandu on November 25 and participate in two public events — inauguration of a trauma centre and gifting of a helicopter to Nepal. He will attend the SAARC summit on November 26 and 27.

“Due to Prime Minister’s unavoidable domestic commitments and pre-scheduled travels within the country, he will travel only to Kathmandu to attend the SAARC summit,” the MEA spokesperson said.

“The Prime Minister deeply values the special relationship between India and Nepal and will always welcome every occasion to visit Nepal and interact with the leadership and the people of Nepal. He looks forward to an early opportunity to visit Janakpur, Lumbini, Muktinath and other places in Nepal,” Akbaruddin said.

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More