DUBAI – Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will be visiting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday, announced an Indian spokesperson on Twitter.
The visit comes at a time when Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi reached the Gulf state today (Saturday) on a three-day official trip.
“At the invitation of his counterpart, EAM @DrSJaishankar will be visiting Abu Dhabi on 18th April 2021. His discussions will focus on economic cooperation and community welfare,” wrote India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Twitter.
At the invitation of his counterpart, EAM @DrSJaishankar will be visiting Abu Dhabi on 18th April 2021. His discussions will focus on economic cooperation and community welfare.
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) April 17, 2021
Media reports claim that a meeting is expected between the foreign ministers of two nuclear rivals located in South Asian region.
Earlier this week, UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef Al Otaiba revealed that the UAE is mediating between India and Pakistan to help the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals reach a “healthy and functional” relationship.
He said in a virtual discussion with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on Wednesday that the UAE played a role “in bringing Kashmir escalation down and created a ceasefire, hopefully ultimately leading to restoring diplomats and getting the relationship back to a healthy level”.
“They might not sort of become best friends but at least we want to get it to a level where it’s functional, where it’s operational, where they are speaking to each other,” he said.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported citing high-level officials that top intelligence officers from India and Pakistan held secret talks in Dubai in January in a new effort to calm military tension over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Officials from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external spy agency, travelled to Dubai for a meeting facilitated by the United Arab Emirates government, the report said.
Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan, both of which claim all of the region but rule only in part.
Turkey is due to host a peace summit for Afghanistan from April 24 to May 4 meant to jump-start efforts to end the war and sketch out a possible political settlement.
