The External Affairs Ministry has laid to rest rumors of a closed-door meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during the WEF meeting to be held at Davos this coming week. The World Economic Forum is scheduled to begin on 22nd January and will run for 5 days. Nations will meet at this forum to discuss the theme “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.”
No meeting will happen despite escalating tension between the two nations
Vijay Gokhale, the Ministry of External Affairs Secretary, debunked the rumors that the Indian and Pakistani leaders would be meeting to resolve the tension between the two countries. Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi, Mr. Gokhale said that the two leaders never had any intention of holding a bilateral meeting during this annual forum.
Speaking to reporters, Minister Gokhale affirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Davos would be a very short one, lasting only 24 hours. He added that the focus of Modi’s meeting would be to give a message about India’s engagements to other world leaders – that India’s performance on both a domestic and global scale shows that the country’s economy is ready to stimulate global growth. This visit would be the first attendance by an Indian Prime Minister to WEF since the previous one by Deve Gowda in 1997. During the visit to Davos, the Prime Minister will give a keynote speech at the opening planetary of the WEF on 23rd January. He is also scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset on January 22nd. Mr. Gokhale did not disclose the purpose of this gathering.
The rumors of an Indian-Pakistani leaders’ summit stemmed from the current strained relations between the two countries. Over the past few days, there have been a series of terror attacks by a number of Pakistan-based terror groups on Indian civilians. These attacks happening across the Pakistan-India international border began on Wednesday night and have already resulted in Indian fatalities. Furthermore, Pakistan-related ceasefire violations have also resulted in casualties on both sides.
A meeting between the leaders of the two nations would have helped ameliorate the tension between India and Pakistan. Without a bilateral meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a peaceful resolution of the border conflict seems unlikely in the near future.
