Indian PM Modi makes surprise visit to Pakistan

New Delhi/Islamabad: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover in Pakistan on Friday to meet his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, the first time an Indian premier has visited the rival nation in over a decade.

Sharif hugged Modi after he landed at the airport in the eastern city of Lahore, state television showed.

A spokesman at the Pakistani prime minister’s office said the two leaders would discuss a range of bilateral issues, including the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Modi was on his way home after a visit to Russia. He stopped off in the Afghanistan capital, Kabul, earlier on Friday.

Modi spoke to Sharif earlier on Friday to wish him on his 66th birthday.

“Looking forward to meeting PM Nawaz Sharif in Lahore today afternoon, where I will drop by on my way back to Delhi,” Modi tweeted.

A close aide to Modi said it was a spontaneous decision taken by the prime minister and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, and that it should not be seen as a sudden shift in India’s position.

“But yes, it’s a clear signal that active engagement can be done at a quick pace,” the aide said, declining to be identified.

Nalin Kohli, a spokesman for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, said in New Delhi that India was ready to take two steps forward if Pakistan took one to improve ties. The countries have fought three wars since 1947, two of them over Kashmir, the divided Himalayan territory that both countries claim in full.

The opposition Congress Party called Modi’s visit irresponsible and said that nothing had happened to warrant warming of ties between the rivals. Scheduled high-level talks between the two were cancelled in August after ceasefire violations across the border.

“If the decision is not preposterous then it is utterly ridiculous,” Congress leader Manish Tewari said.

“India-Pakistan diplomacy can’t be done irresponsibly. We want to ask PM what has changed in the last few months that he went straight to Lahore from Kabul,” Tewari said.

“This is going to blow up in the PM’s face,” he added.

Modi and Sharif have had a stop-start diplomatic relationship since the Indian premier’s surprise invite to Sharif for his inauguration last May.

“That’s like a statesman,” Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted. “One should have such relations with the neighbours,” she added.

Both countries’ governments have frequently disputed each other’s claims on contentious issues such as terrorism, the divided territory of Kashmir and the pace of the trial in the Mumbai terror attacks case.

Earlier on Friday, in his speech to the Afghan parliament, Modi urged closer cooperation between India, Pakistan and other neighbours for Afghanistan’s progress.

“We know that Afghanistan’s success will require the cooperation and support of each of its neighbours. And, all of us in the region — India, Pakistan, Iran and others — must unite ... behind this common purpose,” Modi said.

Earlier this December, the national security advisers of both countries met in Bangkok. The development surprised many and it was announced with a joint press release only after the meeting was over.

India’s foreign ministry at the time said the advisers discussed “peace and security, terrorism, Jammu and Kashmir, and other issues, including tranquillity along the LoC [line of control],” the de facto border in Kashmir.