Internews
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The eight-member South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) Summit next week in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu is expected to act as facilitator for paving the way for restoration of stalled dialogue between Pakistan and India, diplomatic sources here say.
India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr A T C Raghavan has reached New Delhi for consultations and it is understood that India is working on methods for restoration of talks with Pakistan as pressure across the world is mounting on the South Asian nuclear states to engage in talks. The sources said that Pakistan would be forthcoming for resumption of talks with India on any echelon but the initiative for the purpose will have to come from New Delhi as it had severed the talks.
Sources said India may rethink and re-prioritise restoration of dialogue with Pakistan before the visit of US President Barack Obama to India who will be visiting New Delhi in January 2015. He will be the guest of honour in the ceremonies of Indian Republic Day on January 26. Sources said that the United States is among the countries that have impressed upon India to resume dialogue with Pakistan.
A close associate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs said that “if the host prime minister in Kathmandu makes the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sit across the table and ask Sharif to have a word with him, one shouldn’t expect from Pakistan that it would decline.”
“We are civilised people and in our culture such occasions ask for decency,” he added.
