Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Pakistan on Friday afternoon, to meet his counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his way back from Kabul.
“Looking forward to meeting PM Nawaz Sharif in Lahore today afternoon, where I will drop by on my way back to Delhi,” Modi tweeted, taking the Indian media by surprise by announcing an unscheduled meeting with the Pakistani leader on Twitter.
“Spoke to PM Nawaz Sharif & wished him on his birthday,” Modi said in another tweet.
The sudden announcement of the meeting with Sharif is consistent with Modi’s recent out-of-the-box diplomacy with Pakistan away from media glare.
Last month, amid furious speculation, Modi and Sharif shook hands and held a two-minute meeting on the sidelines of the Paris climate summit. Shortly after that meeting, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj visited Islamabad.
Moments before his surprise tweet, Modi launched a veiled attack on Pakistan, saying Afghanistan will succeed only when terrorism “no longer flows across the border” and when “nurseries and sanctuaries of terrorism are shut”.
Without naming Pakistan, Modi said in his 40-minute address to Afghan lawmakers, “There are some who did not want us to be here. There were those who saw sinister designs in our presence here. There are others who were uneasy at the strength of our partnership.”
Modi was in Kabul to inaugurate the new Afghan parliament built by India.
Credit: Times News Network
