United Nations chief calls Modi’s Lahore visit ‘a step in right direction’

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (left) greets his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, with an honor guard at the airport in Lahore, Pakistan.

The influential Washington Post said that with his surprise stop in Pakistan, Modi had “pressed the reset button on the blow-hot-blow-cold relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, paving the way for official dialogue to resume next month”.

“The initiative that Vajpayee ji had begun, taking that process forward the leaders of our regime today including Modi ji and others, they too should contribute firmly in making relations between India and Pakistan better”, Advani told mediapersons in Kutch in Gujarat. Sharif said he was in Lahore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Pakistan has to be taken forward and moved beyond “VIP diplomacy”, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Saturday.

“Beyond the noise, a personal connect”.

Pakistan and India have agreed to hold foreign secretary level talks early next year to finalise the schedule and terms for the resumption of comprehensive dialogue. “The Prime Ministers discuss #IndiaPakistan relations in Raiwind”, tweeted Vikas Swarup, Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs.

The UN chief expressed hope that the dialogue between the two countries will be maintained and strengthened.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leader of the opposition Peoples Party of Pakistan, welcomed the Prime Minister’s surprise stoppage at Lahore.

The Indian rehabilitation efforts in Afghanistan have been troubling Islamabad which supports Taliban’s efforts to destabilise the Kabul government. Television polls suggested most Indians welcomed the development while newspapers praised Modi’s decision to avoid weighty expectations by staging an informal “stopover” on the way back from Kabul.

“What has changed between India and Pakistan that the Prime Minister dropped in for tea in Lahore?” “Many of his core supporters… had backed a de facto freeze on high-level talks as long as Islamabad continues to back Islamist terrorist groups that target India”, he said.

“The subsequent events, in fact, indicated the difficulties, but it is a remarkable fact, and perhaps unprecedented, that this peace process has been revived, and the manner in which the Prime Minister has revived it is quite extraordinary”, he said.