Modi, Sharif may meet in Washington in March

Although no big promises were made, however the meeting at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s private residence at Jati Umra, did set the ball rolling for a meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries in mid January.

“If both the prime ministers sit and talk about the disputes in the presence of their mothers a way out can be found…when the mothers will be around some way to resolve the disputes will definitely be found”, he said during an event here yesterday. An Indian prime minister visiting Pakistan after more than a decade is of great importance in itself, but for a man who is considered to be extremely hawkish when it comes to Pakistan to visit at such short notice, even for a photo-op, is quite a breakthrough.

Modi said he “spent a warm evening with Sharif family at their family home” and said was touched with Nawaz Sharif’s gesture of personally welcoming at the airport.

As 2015 winds to a close, the relationship between India and Pakistan – ancient relatives, modern-day neighbours – is seeing a delightful turn (we hope) for the better. According to Pakistani sources, Islamabad has not given up the idea but it will wait for India to make the right concessions to facilitate it. Commerce and industry minister Nirmala Seetharaman had said in Parliament in the winter session that Pakistan had not provided MFN to India and that it had also not removed trade restrictions on the land route.

“The Indian Prime Minister came to Lahore and gave us his few hours”.

Most of his visits overseas are accompanied by as a Congress former Minister put it, “one gimmick one nation” with the Madison Garden diaspora event on the first visit to the U.S. with the nuclear deal also thrown in for good measure, followed by the visit to the Facebook headquarters and a meeting with CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the second USA visit; another similar event in Australia; a dramatic decision to scrap an earlier agreement and replace it with an order of 36 Rafale jets in ready to fly condition with France; posed photographs at the Terracotta Warriors Museum in China (this inspired many memes); and most recently the drop by in Lahore after taking off from a visit to Afghanistan.

It would include matters related to peace and security, Jammu and Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage, Tulbul Navigation Project, economic and commercial cooperation, counter-terrorism, narcotics control and humanitarian issues, people to people exchanges and religious tourism. Disconnecting the phone, Modi tells the pilot, “Please take the plane to Lahore”.

Sharif expressed confidence that bilateral ties between the two sparring countries would improve and that they would restart a dialogue.