PM Narendra Modi and Pakistani  Counterpart  #NawazSharif met raises talks hope

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif met in Paris on Monday on the sidelines of United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change, reviving hopes that the two nations will be able to overcome differences and resume talks.

The two leaders met at the venue of the summit, shook hands and sat down for a few minutes for what appears to have been an informal chat.

Modi was seen talking to Sharif with the latter listening closely, according to footage aired on Indian television channels.

“PM @narendramodi meets PM Nawaz Sharif at COP (conference of parties) 21 in Paris,” external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted, along with a picture of the two leaders shaking hands.

No further details on the talks were immediately available and it is not yet clear whether such a meeting between the two leaders was planned ahead of them reaching Paris or just a coincidence.

This is the first meeting between the two leaders after Ufa in Russia in July where they agreed to hold calibrated talks between the two national security advisers (NSAs) on terrorism. The leaders had also agreed on two separate meetings between the chiefs of border guards and director generals of military operations of both sides on the 2003 border ceasefire pact.