Warming temperatures in Paris at the ongoing UN climate summit was a cordial handshake and a casual tete-a-tete between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.
After shaking hands, the two leaders sat next to each other on a sofa, without delegates from either country around, and Mr Sharif was seen listening attentively as PM Modi spoke to him.
But while India is downplaying the encounter, terming it as a “brief exchange of courtesies”, Pakistan is keen to term it as a “good” meeting.
In fact, Geo TV, Pakistan’s local news TV channel is quoting “diplomatic sources” to say that it was the Indian Prime Minister who had initiated the meeting.
Diplomatic sources privy to the above meeting told Geo News that the Indian PM Narendra Modi was interested in meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.A report in the Geo TV website
Downplaying the chance encounter, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the PM meets many heads of states, and that the meeting was just a brief exchange of courtesies.
After his meeting with Modi, Sharif told Pakistani media that the talks were held in a “good way, in a good environment”.
I had good discussions with the Indian Prime Minister in a good way, in a good environment and even they have expressed that we should take our issues forward. And we also have the same opinion and hope. Pakistan desires better bilateral relations with India.Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
The Pakistani Prime Minister also said that “the door for dialogue should remain open”, while favoring resumption of talks with India. “We want peace without any compromise on the dignity and honour of Pakistan,” Geo TV quoted Sharif as saying.
The meeting is the first between the two leaders after July when they met in the Russian city of Ufa and agreed that their National Security Advisors would meet. But talks between the National Security Advisers of the two countries were canceled at the last minute over a meeting of the Pakistani envoy to India with Kashmiri separatists.
With central intelligence agencies convinced that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence is planning attacks on Indian soil, after having received specific inputs that just days ago the agency held a meeting with chief commanders of top terrorist outfits — Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) — asking them to carry out terror strikes in India, and the recent arrest of a BSF personnel and a Pakistani intelligence operative for obtaining secret information related to India’s national security and sharing it with Pakistan’s ISI, the atmospherics between the two nations still seem frosty.
(With inputs from PTI)
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