According to India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will not be attending the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit to be held in Pakistan in 2018
In a press conference address on Tuesday, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson, Mohammad Faisal averred that the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will be invited to Pakistan for the twentieth South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit. On Wednesday, the Indian Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj put an end to speculations about Modi attending the summit. In a press address, she said the Prime Minister will not be flying down to Pakistan for the SAARC Summit. The Indian Foreign Minister said no dialogue could take place with Pakistan until it ceases terrorist activities on its soil.
Faisal had also spoken of the Indo-Pak initiative to open the Kartarpur corridor and apprised the press conference of current developments on the project. Swaraj clarified that the Indian government had been asking Pakistan to cooperate on the Kartarpur corridor project for a long time and the country has only recently given a positive response. She said the Indo-Pak initiative does not signify the start of a bilateral dialogue between the two nations as “terror and talks can’t go together”.
India has previously boycotted the SAARC summit that was to be held in Pakistan in 2016. The decision was made in response to a terrorist attack on the Uri Indian Army Camp in Jammu and Kashmir. Post this, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also refused to attend the summit, as a result of which, the 2016 SAARC summit was called off.
The last SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu, Nepal in the year 2014.