India would like to work with Pakistan to help the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) achieve its potential. This message was conveyed at a meeting between Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhry, in Islamabad, on Tuesday.

This is the first official meeting between the foreign secretaries of the neighbours since August last year.  

Talks between the two countries were called off with India expressing anger over a meeting last year between the Pakistani High Commissioner in India and Kashmiri separatist leaders ahead of a scheduled interaction of the two foreign secretaries.

SAARC yatra

Jaishankar is in Pakistan as part of a tour of SAARC member countries.

The decision to send the foreign secretary on the regional tour was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 14 after he telephonically spoke with the presidents of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan and the prime ministers of Pakistan and Bangladesh.  

“I conveyed the expectations of our leadership on SAARC and their determination to forge a cooperative relationship with all our neighbours. We discussed ideas and initiatives to take SAARC forward,” Jaishankar said after his meeting with Chaudhry.

He added that his visit had provided an opportunity to discuss bilateral relations.

“We engaged on each other’s concerns and interests in an open manner. We agreed to work together to find common ground and narrow differences. I reiterated our known concerns on cross-border terrorism, including on the Mumbai case,” he said.

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