Khaqan likely to meet Modi during C'Wealth summit

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will be sitting face to face next month under one-roof when they will be attending 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit in London. It will be first occasion that Abbasi and Modi will come face to face ever-since Shahid Abbasi assumed the office in August last year.

The two Prime Ministers have accepted the invitation to take part in the summit and it has been decided that Prime Minister Abbasi will raise the Kashmir issue in the summit that will be commencing on 19th of next month. It will continue for four days as two days before the summit would be devoted for the Foreign Ministers and high officials deliberations.

Highly placed diplomatic sources told The News here on Saturday that it is unlikely that Prime Minister Abbasi and Modi will have a bilateral meeting on the brinks of the summit. “Pakistan hasn’t asked for such meeting and will not ask for it. But if India makes such request Pakistan could consider it,” the sources added.

The CHOGM will be the last international engagement of Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi outside the country before relinquishing his office in the following month. Premier Abbasi will be visiting London for the fourth, fifth time since assuming the office. On all previous occasions he undertook the trip in private capacity.

The summit will be attended by 50 countries on head of government echelon out 52 member countries, the sources pointed out. The first day will be the structured summit meeting, the second day; all the leaders will go to the Windsor Castle for a retreat.

“The retreat is the one leaders enjoy the most, where they can talk freely and not in a pre-scripted manner. Environment and climate change, adherence to rules-based order, new security threats like cyber security are among the issues that are going to be discussed at the summit.