India has ruled out possibility of any meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) Summit at Astana, Kazakhstan, on June 8-9; however, Prime Minister Sharif's meeting with Russian Vladimir Putin is likely to happen.
"No meeting is scheduled either from their [Pakistani] side or from our [Indian] side," Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told a news conference in New Delhi, according to Indian media, and she also stated: "Talks and terror cannot go together."
Diplomatic sources told Business Recorder that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will attend the SCO Summit at Astana from June 8-9 where he is expected to meet with a number of SCO leaders including Russian President Putin on the sidelines of the Summit.
However, they said that both Pakistan and India have never requested for a meeting between Prime Minister Sharif and Prime Minister Modi. In his meeting with President Putin, the sources said that the Prime Minister will seek an enhanced bilateral co-operation with Russian Federation in various fields including defence.
"The agenda of the possible meeting is being prepared and Pakistan Embassy in Russia is in touch with Russian Foreign Ministry for the meeting," a diplomatic source said, adding there was already willing on both the sides to further strengthen bilateral relations in various fields.
He said that the meeting between the Prime Minister and the Russian President will boost the efforts for deepening the bilateral ties. He further said that the Prime Minister will again extend an invitation to President Putin to visit Pakistan. An invitation to the Russian President has already been pending since December last year, as he was likely to visit Pakistan in May this year to inaugurate the US $2 billion North-South Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline project from Karachi to Lahore.
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