India, Pakistan to resume talks on March 3

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on SAARC Yatra from March 1

India and Pakistan will come face to face after a long hiatus on March 3, when Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar visits Islamabad.

Jaishankar’s visit is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Yatra initiative, which begins March 1. The foreign secretary will visit Bhutan on March 1 and Bangladesh on March 2, Pakistan and Afghanistan on March 3 and 4, respectively. “The schedule for the other destinations is being worked out through diplomatic channels,” ministry of external affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said here on Wednesday. The foreign secretary would take up issues discussed during the previous Saarc summit in Kathmandu.

This will be the first high-level visit to Pakistan under the new government.

After the party was voted to power, talks between India and Pakistan took off on a positive note. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May. But India had cancelled foreign secretary-level discussions in August after Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit met Kashmiri separatist leaders on the eve of the talks.

Referring to Jaishankar’s visit, a senior official told Business Standard: “We are expecting all issues related to Saarc, as well bilateral issues, to be discussed when both the foreign secretaries meet.” Pakistan officials said Prime Minister Sharif might also extend an invitation to Modi to visit Islamabad.

Akbaruddin said: “We stand ready to talk with Pakistan in accordance with the Simla Agreement on all issues including Jammu & Kashmir.”

Jaishankar’s visit will also be the first high-level visit by India to Afghanistan after the new government in Kabul, under President Ashraf Ghani came to power. Afghanistan has been urging India to take its military alliance to the next level as the Nato troops had withdrawn from there in December last year.

“India is a dear friend of Afghanistan,” Afghan Ambassador Shaida Mohammad Abdali has told Press Trust of India. “We have paid a heavy price to make sure that Afghanistan is not a home to terrorists and anti-India elements…. No anti-India activity will again come back to our country. Afghanistan will not revert to it. It is a new Afghanistan.”

These remarks by the Afghan ambassador comes in the wake of home minister Rajnath Singh's comments that the departure of NATO forces from Afghanistan will once again give rise to terrorism in the subcontinent, US and other countries.

Jaishankar is undertaking the 'SAARC Yatra' from March 1 when he will travel to Bhutan followed by Bangladesh in March 2, Pakistan and Afghanistan in March 3 and 4 respectively. "The schedule for the other (SAARC) destinations is being worked out through diplomatic channels," he said here today.

Under the 'SAARC Yatra' initiative the foreign secretary is learnt t o be taking up issues that were discussed during the last SAARC Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal, which includes SAARC business cards, SAARC satellites and a common power grid.