Despite his packed schedule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold separate bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri lanka keeping in line with the Government’s ‘neighbours first’ policy. However, there are no plans for his meeting with Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif.
The PM will hold meetings with Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa besides his Bangladesh and Nepal counterparts Sheikh Hasina and Sushil Koirala respectively on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Similarly, even though External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be there at the UNGA, she too has no engagements with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaz Aziz. Nawaz Sharif, who left for New York on Tuesday, is expected to raise the Kashmir issue in the UNGA, where he speaks on September 26, a day before Modi will speak at UNGA.
India had called off Foreign Secretary-level talks, fixed for August 25 in Islamabad, after the Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit met Hurriyat leaders despite opposition from the Indian Government.
Pakistan has been insisting since then that the onus is now on India to restart the talks. Even as there remains a diplomatic silence from both sides, there have been separate courtesy meetings between Basit and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh in recent times.
However, MEA spokesperson dismissed that these meetings had anything to do with meeting of Modi and Sharif saying “process should not be mixed with the content.”
The meeting between Modi and Hasina assumes special significance since this will be the first meeting between the two. “Both countries are aware of each other's concerns and issues and any meeting will help in better understanding and also further deepening of the bilateral cooperation,” said Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs. Modi is scheduled to meet Hasina on September 27.