India, Pak at Afghan meet immediately; no bilateral talks on playing cards thus far

Written by Shubhajit Roy
, S. Jaishankar | Mumbai |
March 30, 2021 12:47:49 am
Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will take part in a key assembly on Afghanistan, to be held in Dushanbe on Tuesday, together with about 30 international locations and a dozen regional and worldwide organisations.
On Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reached Tajikistan’s capital for the assembly.
Sources, nonetheless, stated no bilateral assembly has been scheduled thus far between the 2 international ministers. But since Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmoud Qureshi shall be in the identical assembly room — and given the thaw in relations with final month’s recommitment to the 2003 ceasefire — sources didn’t rule out a gathering.
This would be the first time for the reason that resolution to stick to the ceasefire that the 2 international ministers will come face-to-face.
On Sunday, Qureshi had stated that no assembly in Tajikistan had thus far been “finalised or requested” together with his Indian counterpart.
A couple of days in the past, Jaishankar too stated no assembly had been scheduled with Qureshi in Tajikistan. “My scheduling is in progress. So far, I do not think any such meeting [is scheduled],” he had stated on March 26 on the India Economic Conclave in New Delhi.
On Monday, Jaishankar held separate talks together with his counterparts from Iran and Turkey. He additionally met Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani.
The External Affairs Minister described his dialog with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as “warm” and stated it coated bilateral cooperation, together with the Chabahar port challenge.
“Began my Heart of Asia engagements with a meeting with Iranian FM @JZarif. A warm conversation that underlined our convergences,” Jaishankar tweeted. “Also discussed our bilateral cooperation, including Chabahar.”
About his talks with the Turkish international minister, Jaishankar stated the discussions centered on Afghanistan-related developments and bilateral relations.
“Met FM @MevlutCavusoglu of Turkey on the sidelines of @HeartofAsia_IP. Our discussions focused on Afghanistan-related developments and our bilateral relations,” he stated in one other tweet.
Jaishankar additionally visited the Dushanbe-Chortut freeway challenge website in Tajikistan and lauded India’s Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for its “good work” there on constructing an eight-lane freeway.