ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will participate in the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit; however, he will not have any formal meeting with his Indian counterpart on the sidelines of the summit, the Foreign Office said on Thursday.
The 18th SAARC summit is scheduled to be held in Nepal’s capital Katmandu from November 26 to 27.
In her weekly media briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, the Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said that the Pakistani premier will also meet the Nepalese leadership during his stay in Kathmandu.
However, she told media persons that no formal meeting with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi is scheduled on the sidelines of the summit.
The SAARC is an economic and geopolitical organisation of eight countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and Pakistan which are primarily located in South Asia.
The dialogue process between Pakistan and India is facing deadlock since New Delhi called off the foreign secretary level talks with Islamabad following a meeting between the Pakistani high commissioner to India Abdul Basit and Kashmiri separatist leaders.
In address at the meeting of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Council in Muzaffarabad on Thursday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif regretted that India cancelled foreign secretary level talks without any reason.
The prime minister said that Pakistan wants to resolve the core issue of Kashmir through dialogue. He called upon the international community to exert pressure on India to come to the negotiating table.
