Modi to meet all SAARC leaders except PM Nawaz: Indian official
Much of the attention has focused on meeting between the leaders of India and Pakistan.
KATHMANDU (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold meetings on the sidelines of the summit with all the SAARC leaders except his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, according to an Indian official who said Islamabad had not requested a meeting.
Much of the attention has focused on whether the leaders of India and Pakistan will meet on the sidelines of the summit.
Hopes of a move towards reconciliation were raised when Modi invited Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony, but his right-wing nationalist government has adopted a more aggressive policy on Pakistan than its centre-left predecessor.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said late Tuesday that the two leaders had an "exchange of courtesies" after arriving in Kathmandu, but that no formal meeting had yet been scheduled.
Analysts said domestic political concerns would likely take precedence during the SAARC summit, with Modi eager to appear tough on Pakistan during local elections in Indian-held Kashmir.
"After the recent snub from India, which cancelled foreign secretary-level talks, Pakistan is not going to take the initiative. It will depend whether Modi says he wants to meet," Pakistani political analyst Talat Masood told AFP.
Earlier on Tuesday, PM Nawaz Sharif was reported as saying the ball was in India`s court after New Delhi cancelled talks earlier this year.
"SAARC`s main problem is that SAARC is basically about India and Pakistan, with the Afghanistan dimension thrown in now," said Sujeev Shakya, chairman of the Nepal Economic Forum.
The region s first summit in three years follows some of the worst cross-border violence in the disputed region of Kashmir in a decade, and comes as NATO-led troops prepare to pull out of Afghanistan.
The leaders of the eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries are meeting for the first time since the election of a new government in New Delhi that is taking a more assertive stance on both China and Pakistan.
Modi will hold his first talks with Afghanistan s new President Ashraf Ghani on the summit s sidelines on Wednesday.
On Tuesday he oversaw a $1 billion agreement to build a hydropower plant in neighbouring Nepal, where China has invested heavily in recent years, saying he wanted to "move forward" with deals long delayed by mutual mistrust.
