India, Pakistan Likely to Resume Talks After Two Years

Last week, Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry had stated that it was ready for talks but was waiting for a response from the Indian side. Indian officials have now hinted that a separate meeting between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers may take place on the sidelines of a SAARC meeting in New York next week.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — India and Pakistan will likely resume bilateral talks after two years. The two countries had stalled the bilateral dialogue after India decided to boycott Islamabad following terror attacks on military camps in which dozens of Indian soldiers were killed.

Government officials in India have confirmed that officials on both sides are in touch with each other and that there are chances of a bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers on the sidelines of the SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) meeting in New York on September 27.

READ MORE: Indian Govt to Celebrate 2 Years of 'Surgical Strikes' on Pakistani Terror Camps

"Both sides are in touch. It is a work in progress; though nothing has been scheduled yet. The schedule of the minister's visit is still being prepared," an official of India's External Affairs Ministry said.

The official confirmed that the possibility of a separate bilateral engagement between Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a day prior to the SAARC meeting, was being looked into.

The possibility of bilateral talk has surfaced amid unpleasant reports from the India-Pakistan border. Indian security forces have claimed that Pakistani troops slit the throat of a soldier belonging to India's Border Security Force guarding the international border near Jammu on Tuesday.

— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) September 19, 2018

A day before this, Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in an interview to a private news channel that the heads of Pakistani soldiers were being cut off but were not being displayed.

READ MORE: US Wants to Support India, Pakistan in Bilateral Dialogue Resumption – Official

— Manimugdha Sharma (@quizzicalguy) September 19, 2018

The bilateral relations between the two South Asian neighbors deteriorated following terror attacks in 2016 on Indian military camps. The two sides continue to accuse each other of frequent ceasefire violations along the de facto border in Kashmir, a territory that both countries claim as their own.