India’s Modi arrives in Pakistan on first visit as premier

The ice was finally broken by the NSA-level talks and the visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Pakistan.

The two had also met in Paris during COP-21 and also had had a surprise meeting in Bangkok.

The talks were held in an informal setting at Mr Sharif’s ancestral house Raiwind palace on a day which happened to be the latter’s birthday, also a day which saw the wedding of Mr Sharif’s grand daughter.

Earlier, Pakistani television showed footage of the Indian prime minister landing in Lahore’s Allama Iqbal airport and being received by his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif. “That was it, and the rest is history” a senior Pakistani official said, corroborating the reported version.

Prime Minister Modi in a tweet on micro blogging site Twitter said, “Looking forward to meeting PM Nawaz Sharif in Lahore today afternoon, where I will drop by on my way back to Delhi”.

The next step will be for the two countries’ foreign secretaries to meet in the middle of next month, he added.

The Indian prime minister further said that Afghanistan needs help of all neighbouring countries for its success.

The Congress leader questioned how many Prime Ministers or heads of states make such detours to wish birthdays, asking if any Indian Prime Minister has landed in another country in this manner in the last 67 years.

It was the first time an Indian prime minister has visited Pakistan in nearly 12 years. Indian journalist Rahul Kanwal tweeted this picture of Modi and Sharif, calling it “Love in Lahore” and asking whether the two leaders were now friends for life. Unfortunately, as with previous Pakistani civilian administrations, this time too the Pakistan military-intelligence establishment that runs Pakistan’s foreign and security policies has ensured that Mr Sharif is unable to change policies.

These views were expressed by various political leaders and analysts, which were aired by various news channels on the brief stopover of Indian Prime Minister in Lahore while returning to New Delhi from Kabul. Some diplomats claim that China has been anxious about the growing tensions between India and Pakistan as it could hurt its $46-billion investment in the economic corridor between Gwadar and Kashgar.

Modi and Sharif talked about restarting a dialogue and increasing people-to-people contacts between their nations, he said. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s trip to Lahore is a case in point. After her talks with Pakistan, she said both sides agreed to resume talks on several topics.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies.

So while Modi gently ribbed Pakistan about its obsession with “the mysterious Indian consulates”, in his address to Afghanistan’s parliament on December 25, he also spoke in the same speech of his hope that “Pakistan will become a bridge between South Asia and Afghanistan and beyond”.