Foreign ministers of Indo-Pak meet on Wednesday?

New Delhi, Mar 14: The message from the Prime Minister's office regarding relations with Pakistan is to continue to talk but keep the pressure up. Not talking is not a solution according to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval.

The relations between India and Pakistan will once again be tested when the foreign ministers of both the countries are likely to meet on the sidelines of the South Asian summit to be held in Nepal this week.

In the aftermath of the Pathankot attack, the foreign secretary level talks had been postponed as India expected action first against the Jaish-e-Mohammad before it could proceed.

While the talks had been postponed, the National Security Advisors of both the countries continued to stay in touch mostly over phone.

What is on the anvil?

When the foreign ministers of both countries meet at Nepal on Wednesday there would be a couple of things on the table to be discussed. While the progress made by Pakistan into the investigations of the Pathankot attack will be high on the agenda, the two ministers will also try and set the stage for future bi-laterals.

India would not only seek a progress report on the probe into the Pathankot attack, but would also expect Pakistan to fix a date for their investigators to visit India. The visit by the Pakistan's Special Investigation Team to India to probe the attack has not yet been fixed.

While it was said that the team would visit during March, there is no date fixed as yet and Wednesday's meeting is likely to clear that up, highly placed sources tell OneIndia.

Officials say that they are positive about the meeting of the two external affair ministers. Talks have to continue at any cost and there is no point in putting them off.

While on one hand the pressure quotient needs to be high in order to ensure that Pakistan takes steps against the non-state actors, there are also other issues such as trade which have to be discussed.

Former Research and Analysis Wing chief, C D Sahay tells OneIndia that putting off talks is never a good option. We need to keep engaging with Pakistan no matter what, Sahay also added.

OneIndia News