South Asia
Indian foreign secretary Jaishankar in Pakistan for talks
New Delhi, Mar 3: Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar arrived at Islamabad for Foreign Secretary level talks on Tuesday.
"Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in delegation level talks with Pakistan\'s Foreign Secretary as part of SAARC Yatra," tweeted the High Commission of India in Islamabad.
Jaishankar\'s visit is to touch the third destination of his "SAARC Yatra", designed to strengthen relations with the south Asian neighbours.
Jishankar will hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmed Choudhary in Islamabad.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoned Nawaz Sharif to discuss the foreign secretary\'s visit to Islamabad.
NDTV has quoted Pakistan\'s foreign office spokesperson as saying that they expect the resumption of structured dialogue after Jaishankar\'s visit.
"We have noted that visit is in the context of SAARC. However, when the Foreign Secretaries meet, bilateral relations would be discussed. We expect this interaction would lead to resumption of the dialogue process," officials said.
But they made it clear that Pakistan would not stop talking to separatists.
"The practice of Pakistani High Commissioner and Pakistani leadership meeting with Kashmiris has been going on for a long time now. We have been meeting Kashmiri leaders and will continue meeting them as and when we consider necessary," Tasnim Aslam Khan, Pakistan\'s Foreign Office Spokesperson told NDTV.
India has said the purpose of Mr Jaishankar\'s visit is mainly to explore the "process of normalisation" between the two countries.
