Sushma Swaraj to visit Pakistan, meet Sharif (Roundup)

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will travel to Pakistan for a regional security conference on Tuesday and also meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif there.

Sushma Swaraj will lead the Indian delegation for Heart of Asia 5th Ministerial Meeting on Afghanistan on December 9 in Islamabad, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in a tweet.

In Islamabad, the prime minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said he was looking forward to meeting Sushma Swaraj.

"Talks are the only solution," the Daily Pakistan quoted Aziz as saying.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Sushma Swaraj will arrive in Islamabad on Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively, to attend the two-day summit.

The Heart of Asia conference engages "heart of Asia" countries in sincere and result-oriented cooperation for a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

Aziz said there have been breakthroughs in dialogue with Afghanistan and India and the Pakistani relationship with the two countries would now further be strengthened.

Matters of conflict between Pakistan and India would be discussed in the meeting and a road map would be devised to resume the composite bilateral dialogue during the visit, he said.

Sushma Swaraj's visit comes after the NSAs of India and Pakistan met in Bangkok on Sunday and "agreed to carry forward the constructive engagement".

A joint statement issued after the Bangkok meeting said Ajit Doval of India and Naseer Khan Janjua of Pakistan held discussions "in a candid, cordial and constructive atmosphere".

"Discussions covered peace and security, terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, and other issues including tranquility along the LoC (Line of Control)", the statement said.

Sunday's meeting in Bangkok followed the impromptu meeting of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi of India and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan in Paris on the sidelines of the Conference of Parties (CoP) 21 climate summit on November 30.

This was the first meeting between Modi and Sharif since they met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Russia's Ufa in July this year.

Sushma Swaraj's will be the first ministerial-level visit from India to Pakistan since the visit of her predecessor S.M. Krishna in 2012.

The Congress, referring to the NSAs meet, sought to know what made the government effect a "fundamental departure" from the position conveyed to parliament with regard to engagement with Islamabad and asked it to take parliament into confidence.

"The prime minister and the government should inform the house about the developments and reasons which have made the government make a fundamental departure from the position as was conveyed to this house in the last session with regard to India's engagement with Pakistan," party leader Anand Sharma said in the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour.

On Sushma Swaraj's visit to Pakistan, he said it was "disrespect of parliament as parliament is not taken into confidence".

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi then said a statement would be made by the foreign minister on December 10.

Meanwhile former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah sought to know if India was "made to talk Kashmir" as there was no mention of 'K' word when the two prime ministers had met at Ufa.