Pakistan lauds thaw in ties

New Delhi: Pakistan external affairs minister Sartaj Aziz said the deadlock in India-Pakistan ties had “eased” to some extent. In his talks with Ms Swaraj, Mr Aziz said various matters with focus on resumption of the composite dialogue process will be discussed.

Ms Swaraj’s visit comes three years after former external affairs minister S.M. Krishna travelled to Islamabad in 2012, when the two countries also signed an agreement on visa liberalisation.

Ms Swaraj will be accompanied by foreign secretary S. Jaishankar, who was also present at the four-hour-long meeting between national security adviser Ajit Doval and Pakistan NSA Naseer Janjua in the Thai capital.

The joint statement after Sunday’s NSAs’ meeting said the talks were held pursuant to a meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the global climate conference in Paris, rejecting the version given by the Indian side then that it was a mere “exchange of courtesies”, although Mr Sharif had told the Pakistani media that he had a “good meeting” and that the “doors of dialogue should open”.

Before Paris, Mr Modi and Mr Sharif had held a bilateral meeting in the Russian city of Ufa, where they decided the NSAs would meet to discuss all “terror-related” issues.