Bishkek sources stated that Prime Minister Narendra modi and his Pakistani counterpart imran khan exchanged pleasantries on Friday during the SCO summit in Bishkek. Reportedly modi exchanged usual pleasantries with Khan in the Leaders' Lounge at venue of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit here, they said. Both modi and Khan were here to attend the annual summit of the SCO.
Furthermore the exchange of pleasantries came over two weeks after Khan and Foreign Minister Shah mehmood Qureshi wrote separate letters to their Indian counterparts, pushing for restarting the bilateral talks. Reportedly india has not been engaging with pakistan since an attack on the Air Force base at Pathankot in January of 2016 by a pakistan based terror group, maintaining that talks and terror cannot go together.
Moreover Khan had also made a telephone call to modi on May 26 and expressed his desire to work together for the betterment of people of the two countries. Further on his part, modi said creating trust and an environment free of violence and terrorism was essential for fostering peace and prosperity in the region and hence following the phone call and letter by Khan to Prime Minister modi after his re-election for a second term, there were speculation that both may have a meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit here.
