(Image source from: India and Pak to hold talks on Kashmir })
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sending Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyan Jaishankar to Pakistan as part of a regional tour, the first top-ranking visit since Modi broke off talks last year over the disputed region of Kashmir.
The sign of a thaw in ties comes weeks after a visit to India by US President Barack Obama.
Modi called his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, early on Friday to wish his country luck in the World Cup cricket tournament beginning this weekend and to tell him that Jaishankar will soon visit Islamabad as well as other regional capitals.
The Indian government last year abruptly called off talks between the foreign secretaries, incensed that Pakistan`s envoy in New Delhi had hosted Kashmiri separatists in the run-up to those talks.
Sharif told Modi that he welcomed the proposed visit of the Indian envoy to Pakistan to discuss all issues of common interest, the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
- Arun Kumar
