SAARC Yatra: Foreign Secretary Jaishankar arrives in Pakistan

Islamabad, Mar 3: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar arrived here on Tuesday to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhary, seven months after India had cancelled Foreign Secretary-level talks.

Jaishankar, who flew in Islamabad from Dhaka, was received by Indian High Commissioner T C A Raghavan at the airport. "Indian Foreign Secretary Dr S Jaishankar arrives at Islamabad for Foreign Secretary level talks," Indian High Commission here tweeted.

Jaishankar, who started his "SAARC yatra" on Sunday with Bhutan and visited Bangladesh on Monday, will also call on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif later before flying out to Afghanistan Wednesday.

Pakistan has already expressed hope that the talks would lead to resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue. On its part, India has maintained that it will discuss the ways to take forward the "process of normalisation" between the two countries.

India had cancelled FS-level talks because the Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi held consultations with Kashmiri separatists. However, last month, using cricket diplomacy Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Sharif and also told him about Jaishankar's "SAARC yatra".

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) -- an economic and geopolitical grouping of eight countries located in South Asia -- includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka as its members.

PTI