Srinagar: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi shook hands and spoke with each other on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday.
In an interview with Independent Urdu, the foreign minister said that PM Khan spoke with PM Modi and felicitated him over BJP’s victory in the Indian elections.
It wasn’t a scheduled meeting. Indian foreign ministry had said last week that no meeting between PM Khan and PM Modi was scheduled on the sidelines of the international summit.
“To the best of my knowledge, no meeting is being arranged between Prime Minister Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of the SCO meet,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said.
This is the first meeting between the two leaders after their countries fought a short three-day war over Kashmir in February when Indian troops were attacked in Pulwama.
Pakistan has long maintained that it wants peace in the region and is ready to resolve all issues through dialogue.
In a letter last week, PM Khan invited PM Modi for talks and said that Pakistan wants to resolve all problems between the two countries, including the Kashmir dispute.
PM Khan said talks between the two countries were the only solution to help both countries’ people overcome poverty.
