While officials in India and Pakistan insist there is no proposal for a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York this week, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will interact with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz during a SAARC multilateral meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday.
It will be the second such meeting this month, after Ms. Swaraj met with Mr. Aziz at the Shanghai Cooperation Summit in Dushanbe on September 12, and comes after consultations between National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh in the first signs of a revival of India-Pakistan interactions since talks were cancelled in August.
The SAARC meeting also takes significance ahead of the SAARC summit in Kathmandu from November 23 to 27, where Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif will meet. While Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will not attend the UNGA this year, as President-elect Ashraf Ghani is expected to assume office this week, it will be a chance to exchange notes with Afghan Foreign Minister Zarar Ahmad Osmani days after the announcement of Mr. Ghani’s announcement and deal with his rival candidate Abdullah Abdullah to form the new government in Kabul.
