India is 'patiently' awaiting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's response to the invitation for swearing in of Narendra Modi as 'short duration bilateral meetings' are being set up with all the other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation leaders, who have decided to attend the ceremony on May 26.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that developing close relations with India's neighbours is a key priority of his government, ahead of his planned visit to Kathmandu on Tuesday afternoon to attend the 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Summit.
During the visit, apart from attending the SAARC meet, Singh is likely to have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other SAARC member-countries, including Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
Jaishankar was among the first ministers to arrive for the SAARC ministerial meeting. He was in the meeting for over 45 minutes and then left.
According to top official sources, the foreign secretaries will meet only after the Special Investigation Team from Pakistan arrives in India and makes concrete progress in the probe.
"It was a formal courtesy call, nothing else," an official said.
India on Thursday pitched for unleashing the "collective strength" of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj underlined the need for a South Asian Economic Union with greater connectivity and forward movement on pending agreements on rail and motor vehicles.
During her week-long stay, Swaraj, leading a high-powered Indian delegation, is expected to hold about 20 bilateral and trilateral meetings with leaders attending the session.
They shared the dais but other than a formal handshake, there was no exchange of courtesies between prime ministers of India and Pakistan during the nearly three-hour South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Summit in Kathmandu on Wednesday.
The meeting comes as India continues its attempts to isolate Pakistan in the South Asian region after the attack on its army camp in Uri.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
Pakistan will not engage with India 'until and unless they lift the siege' in Kashmir, it said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a $1 million ad-hoc grant for the operational budget for the BIMSTEC secretariat and another $3 million assistance to revive the grouping's centre for weather and climate.
It alleged that the decision by India to 'derail the summit' effectively 'contradicts' Prime Minister Narendra Modi's own call to fight against poverty in the region.
He added that the risks can increase if the Chinese slowdown gathers more speed.
Singh is expected to bluntly ask Pakistan to stop sponsoring acts of terror in India and also raise the issue of slow pace of probe into the Pathankot airbase terror attack
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will only travel to Kathmandu when he will leave on Tuesday to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Nepal, despite his wish to visit other parts of the country including Janakpur, the revered Hindu religious site.
President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday night hosted a dinner for visiting South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation leaders and Prime Minister Narendra Modi where the guests were treated to a variety of dishes drawn from various parts of the country.
Sing is expected to bluntly ask Pakistan to stop sponsoring acts of terror in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Pakistan to attend the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit likely to be held in September 2016.
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The minister, who is in New York to attend high-level meetings of the UNGA, assured INOC that while he was aware of some of the concerns of the non-resident Indians, he did not know the extent of the problems and that the government will address the issues as soon as possible.
Amid continued strain in ties, Pakistan on Wednesday said it does not see any prospect of having structured talks with India in the near future and made it clear that the ball is in India's court to initiate dialogue.
Leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan have also decided not to attend the summit, which now has to be cancelled as per the SAARC charter.
Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi's invite to the heads of governments of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation-member countries has the stamp of approval of not only President Pranab Mukherjee but also the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Connectivity is what SAARC needs the most but Pakistan is not interested, says Rajeev Sharma.
Gujarati popular dish kela methi nu shaak, mouth-watering chicken chettinad from Tamil Nadu, Punjab's dal makhani and Bengali dish Potol Dorma will be served at a private dinner hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee for visiting foreign dignitaries on Monday.
India would not be seen to be anything but rude with the Pakistanis. In the big picture, who is the bigger adversary right now? Who is the bigger pain in the neck? And who is it that is keeping more than 3,000 km of our borders active, throwing our military posture and deployments into imbalance? asks Shekhar Gupta.
The Indian desire to deepen its ties with Vietnam, especially in the oil sector, besides defence and trade, was conveyed to the top leadership in Hanoi by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to announce a host of initiatives for the health sector on Independence Day with the highlights being the 'Heal in India' and 'Heal by India' projects and a roadmap to eliminate sickle cell disease by 2047, official sources said.
Khan proposed a meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this month.
The development comes after four of the eight member states -- India, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh -- decided to pull out.
Although the special relationship might compel Bhutan to be considerate of Indian interests, new challenges will likely arise. An emerging new phase of relations will also call for fresh redlines between India and Bhutan, observe Harsh V Pant and Aditya Gowdara Shivamurthy.
India has maintained that there can be no talks with Pakistan unless it stops supporting terrorists.
He underlined that Lok Sabha election results in India show that the Modi government kept alive and strengthened the 'expectation of change' in the country.
Shringla last served as India's envoy to the US. He will be serving a two-year term. In the course of a diplomatic career spanning 35 years, Shringla has held a variety of positions in New Delhi and abroad, and is considered an expert on India's neighbourhood.
While Narendra Modi spent fewer days abroad than his predecessor -- 275 days versus Dr Singh's 306 - he has travelled more widely than any other Indian PM.
The Jaishankar-Wang talks came amid the dragging border row in eastern Ladakh that entered its fifth year in May.
It is important the SCO focus strongly on economic development and regional integration that leads to greater benefits for the least developed regions of member-countries, writes Sana Hashmi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to the national capital on Thursday after a successful three-day visit to Nepal capital Kathmandu, where he attended the 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit.
India wants good relations with Pakistan but the neighbouring country must stop terror activities directed against it as talks will get subdued under the din of bomb blasts, Sushma Swaraj said after taking charge as External Affairs Minister on Wednesday.
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