Thaw: Modi to visit Pakistan next year

MOSCOW: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to make a landmark visit to Pakistan next year, India’s foreign secretary said on Friday, signaling a warming of ties between the nuclear-armed neighbors after a year of tensions.
Modi accepted the invitation to attend a 2016 meeting of South Asian leaders in Islamabad during talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the margins of a security summit in Russia, Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.
Experts warned the trip could yet fall through, but if Modi goes, it would be the first time an Indian leader has visited the country since Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004. The move demonstrates a readiness to engage with India’s longtime rival despite the hawkish stance Modi’s government has often taken.
The leaders also agreed on Friday to work together to rein in regional militancy, scheduling rare meetings between national security advisers and heads of border security, as well as helping expedite the trial of those charged with the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Modi and Sharif shook hands for about 15 seconds, smiling, before sitting down for talks. “The very fact that they’ve met is good,” said Ayaz Amir, a political analyst and former lawmaker in Pakistan. “If they perhaps agreed to try to tone down the extremist rhetoric coming from both sides, that would be even better.”
Most had predicted dialogue would resume, but few expected concrete action, said Neelam Deo, director of the Mumbai-based thinktank Gateway House. “It signals from both sides a willingness to get down to the real issues,” she said.
But both Deo and Amir cautioned that people should not pin hopes on Modi’s possible visit to Pakistan. “It’s a year away,” Deo said. “If things go really badly, (he) can say, ‘Sorry.’”
The two sides announced they would release fishermen held in each other’s custody within 15 days as a goodwill gesture.
“It is the first time Pakistan has accepted to combat terrorism in ‘all its forms’,” said M.J. Akbar, spokesman for ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. “After years of unclear delays, it is the first time Pakistan has promised to expedite” the Mumbai attacks trials, he said.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry also said the countries’ National Security Advisers will meet in New Delhi to discuss all issues relating to terrorism. Officials overseeing Pakistani and Indian border issues will also meet, although Chaudhry gave no dates.