Foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan would meet on June 29 in New Delhi to prepare the ground for the crucial meeting of the foreign ministers planned for the middle of July in Islamabad, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said in Beijing on Wednesday.
It would be the highest level visit to India by any Pakistani leader in recent years and a possible opportunity to break the ice between the two nations.
Doubts over Pakistan's participation has meant that the dates and venues for the World Cup are yet to be confirmed with just over three months left before the start of the tournament.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has expressed readiness to join hands with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to "properly handle" issues related to the situation on the ground in the border areas, amid the protracted border row in eastern Ladakh.
The heightened state of alert was only relaxed after Wang met his Jaishankar in Moscow on Friday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, a second source said.
Dr Singh and Zardari shook hands after they posed for a group photo with leaders of other Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member nations -- Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
Declaring India's readiness to contribute to global efforts to overcome the economic crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Yekaterinburg on Monday night to attend the Summits of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and Brazil-Russia-India-China.
A five-point agreement was reached between Jaishankar and Wang at a meeting in Moscow on September 10 on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation conclave.
Sources stated that a discussion is likely on the changed geopolitical situation in wake of the Taliban taking over Afghanistan and the drawdown of the US forces from the region.
'We should watch -- in the near term -- for signs that the two have totally fallen out at a personal, political level.' 'Trump and Modi know how to be dealmakers, but they also know how to hold a grudge.'
"The external affairs minister will be visiting Moscow to attend the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting which is scheduled on September 10," spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivstava said at an online media briefing.
"India has consistently articulated its desire to play a more constructive and meaningful role as an observer at the SCO," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said, addressing the 10th summit of the forum in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent.
In the midst of a spat between India and China, an official Chinese newspaper on Friday spoke of a possible meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries next week in Thailand.
In the midst of a war of words between the two countries, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday expressed his desire to meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.The Chinese leader's remarks come a day after Beijing raked up its claim over Arunachal Pradesh, questioning Prime Minister Singh's visit there on October 3. India hit back on Wednesday, reacting strongly to Chinese plans to get involved in projects in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.
Pakistan turned to China after the US refused it a civilian nuclear agreement.
India, along with some other members, objected to the proposal and due to lack of consensus or concurrence, the meet has been cancelled.
Apart from emphasising the importance of India's economic development, and its re-integration into the global economy, Dr Singh has repeatedly emphasised the importance of the ideas that define the Indian civilization and the Indian Republic for global peace, security and challenges, ranging from terrorism to pandemics.
Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Yekaterinburg (Russia), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that India is seeking an external environment conducive to its sustained high economic growth which is necessary to meet its developmental objectives.
In the first top-level contact since the Mumbai terror attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday during which he is understood to have made it clear that Pakistan should take concrete action against terrorism directed against India.
Jaishankar also emphasised the need for ensuring that Kabul's neighbours are not "threatened by terrorism, separatism and extremism".
The idea of a Russia-India-China triangle was first floated in 1998 by the then premier Yevgeny Primakov.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is in Moscow on a four-day visit to attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the SCO of which both India and China are members.
India seeks to play a supportive role for a peaceful and stable region, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday as he embarked on a high-profile visit to Russia to hold summit talks with President Vladimir Putin amid the conflict in Ukraine.
In the first top-level contact between India and Pakistan after Mumbai attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari will meet in Russia on the sidelines of a multilateral summit next week to break ice in the bilateral ties.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is still a developing entity and it is essentially due to Russian and Chinese efforts. The moot question is can India benefit by attending it?
Disengagement from the LAC will remain a chimera because China has given enough indications that the PLA will not move back any more. China has even deployed drones to monitor and deny any patrolling by Indian troops even in the buffer zones which are all in Indian Territory, explains Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
'Whenever it hears the term SCO, Delhi faces an existential dilemma -- of its own making.'
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu on the sidelines of the SCO defence ministerial conclave in Delhi, people familiar with the matter said.
India and Pakistan's admission to the Beijing-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organisation will be formalised at the grouping's summit in Kazakhstan next week, China said on Thursday.
President Droupadi Murmu addressed both Houses of Parliament, highlighting the government's achievements in various sectors, including economic growth, social welfare, and infrastructure development. She emphasized the government's efforts to lift the economy out of "policy paralysis" and create a more inclusive society. Murmu also acknowledged the challenges posed by digital fraud and cybercrime and stressed the need for a social infrastructure revolution. The President's speech is considered a policy statement, outlining the government's vision and roadmap for the future.
A video shows that Shehbaz was asking an aide for help, however even after the aide's assistance, his headphones dropped once again.
It is the first time in nearly nine years that India's foreign minister travelled to Pakistan even as the ties between the two neighbours remained tense over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for trying to help find a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis.
"The current border situation is overall stable," the Chinese diplomat said.
India and China on Wednesday held 'constructive' and 'forward-looking' diplomatic talks to resolve the over four-year border standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh but there was clear no indication of any breakthrough.
In his opening remarks at the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Modi also said that some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of their policy and the grouping must not hesitate to criticise them.
'If Washington has to balance Chinese power, she will have to turn to the third biggest power in the world which is India.' 'The United States and India will have to work together in order to keep Chinese ambitions in check.'
