Pakistan will not engage with India 'until and unless they lift the siege' in Kashmir, it said.
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.
Pakistan on Friday said it is going to the upcoming foreign-secretary level parleys with India with an 'open mind' and was hopeful of a 'constructive attitude' from it so that the stalled peace process can be resumed. Referring to the upcoming meeting between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India on the margins of the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting in Bhutan, Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said, "Pakistan is going to Thimphu with an open mind".
On the eve of their crucial talks, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had a friendly chat with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the sidelines of an informal working dinner of SAARC Foreign Ministers in New York
Under the shadow of the serial blasts in India, foreign ministers of the eight-member South Asian association for Regional Cooperation met on Thursday in Colombo to set the agenda for the weekend summit aimed at boosting trade ties and combating the food and energy crisis.
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 is expected that this meeting could possibly pave the way for a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in the US later this month.
Quoting diplomatic sources, The Express Tribune reported that India and Pakistan were exploring the possibility of a meeting between Swaraj and Aziz and also between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in the Nepalese tourist city of Pokhara.
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.
Connectivity is what SAARC needs the most but Pakistan is not interested, says Rajeev Sharma.
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