PM Modi to visit Pakistan next year for SAARC summit

Both nations will revive stalled dialogue, NSAs to meet

Prime  Minister Narendra Modi will visit Pakistan in 2016 to attend the (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit being held in Islamabad. The decision was taken Friday during an hour-long meeting he had with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Russia to bilateral issues.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is said to have extended the invitation to Modi to visit Islamabad and attend the summit. If this fructifies, then Modi will be the first PM after Atal Behari Vajpayee to visit Pakistan. Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh never visited Pakistan during the decade that he was prime minister.

According to sources, Modi strongly raised the issue of release of 26/11 mastermind Zakhi-ur Rahman Lakhvi even as he asked Sharif to take action against him. Besides, the PM is reported to also have raised issues of the ongoing ceasefire violation along the border in which many Indian soldiers have been killed.

Both sides had agreed to maintain ceasefire across the Line of Control (LoC) in 2003. Reports of a BSF soldier being killed, allegedly by Pakistan army, in the Baramulla sector of Jammu and Kashmir started trickling in just as talks between both leaders were confirmed Thursday evening.

In a breakthrough, India and Pakistan today decided to revive the stalled dialogue process and find ways to expedite trial of the Mumbai attack case as Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif agreed to cooperate to eliminate terrorism from South Asia.

Modi and Sharif, in their first bilateral talks in over an year, met for nearly one hour here on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and discussed entire gamut of issues between the two countries.

Significantly, Foreign Secretaries S Jaishankar and Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry held a joint press meet where they read out a joint statement on the outcome of the much-anticipated meeting between the two leaders.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz will meet in New Delhi to discuss all issues connected to terrorism, the statement said.

"Both sides agreed to discuss ways and means to expedite the Mumbai case trial including additional information like providing voice samples," the statement said.

Early in the morning, hours before the talks started, Vikas Swarup, spokesperson, ministry of external affairs (MEA) described it as "neighbourhood engagement."

Modi and Sharif have not met since May 2014 when Sharif had visited India to attend Modi's oath-taking ceremony and held talks with the newly-minted Indian prime minister. However, contrary to expectations, bilateral relations deteriorated with Pakistan engaging in talks with Kashmiri separatist leaders.

However, ties were somewhat mended when Foreign Secretary Jaishankar visited Islamabad in March as part of the SAARC Yatra and met with his Pakistani counterpart.