India and Pakistan’s foreign secretaries will hold talks

Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry will hold talks with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar here on Tuesday, on the margins of a global conference on Afghanistan. It will be the first meeting between the two after the January Pathankot terror attack derailed the India-Pakistan bilateral dialogue.

A Pakistan High Commission spokesperson confirmed Chaudhry’s day-long trip for the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process meeting. The Pakistan delegation will “also hold bilateral meetings with other leading delegations attending the meeting”.

Though the spokesperson was silent about talks between Chaudhry and Jaishankar, sources said the two foreign secretaries were likely to meet. It will be the first contact between the two countries at the foreign secretary level after the 2 January attack at Pathankot.

The meeting comes after the two sides recently declared that they were in contact to hold a meeting of their foreign secretaries, who will draw up the modalities for holding a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue.

The development comes after Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit created a flutter when he said here that the peace talks between Islamabad and New Delhi have been “suspended”.

The Afghanistan conference in Delhi follows the 5th Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference in Islamabad on December 9, 2015.