The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that minister Sushma Swaraj will meet Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The ministry added that this does not imply a resumption of dialogue between the two countries and said it is “just a meeting”, ANI reported.
“Even now after so many years, we don’t have any official communication from Pakistani government that they are willing to consider this matter,” Minister of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. “The EAM will therefore raise this issue in her meeting with the Pakistan Foreign Minister on sidelines of UNGA.”
The UN General Assembly began on September 18 in New York and will conclude on September 30.
This came hours after it was reported that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the only way forward for the two countries is through “constructive engagement”. “Pakistan remains ready to discuss terrorism,” Khan wrote in a letter dated September 14. “Discussions on trade, people to people contacts, religious tourism, humanitarian issues are also important.”
Khan had proposed a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries before the informal meeting of the SAARC Foreign Ministers at the sidelines of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session in New York.
However, there has been no official response to his letter just yet.
Khan was responding to Modi’s letter from August congratulating him on taking charge as Pakistan’s 22nd prime minister.
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