New Dehli : Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are likley to meet on the sidelines of the annual summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Russian city of Ufa next month with an aim to move forward and normalize ties, Indian media reported.
There is a view that Wednesday’s telephonic call by the Modi to Nawaz has “lowered the temperatures” between India and Pakistan which have been involved in a war of words over Modi’s critical remarks about Pakistan during his Dhaka visit recently and in the wake of India’s military action in Myanmar.
Diplomatic sources said that the telephone talk between the prime ministers of two South Asian arch rivals has paved the way for their bilateral meeting which could help lower the tension. Modi had called up Nawaz and extended best wishes on the occasion of Ramzan while noting that there was a need for having “peaceful” and “friendly” bilateral ties between the two countries.
In his telephonic conversation, Modi had also conveyed India’s decision to release detained Pakistani fishermen on the “pious” occasion of Ramzan. The annual SCO summit will be held in Ufa from July 9-10 and both India and Pakistan are likely to be granted full membership of the China-backed grouping. SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India, Iran and Pakistan were admitted as observers at the 2005 Astana Summit.
