Prime Minister Narendra Modi was received by Nawaz Sharif at the Lahore airport with a hug.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today hailed the resumption of India-Pakistan dialogue and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gesture of visiting Lahore on his way back from Afghanistan last week.
"Indian Prime Minister came to Lahore and gave us his a few hours. It is high time the countries put aside their hostilities," Mr Sharif said at a function today.
PM Modi's visit was a "spontaneous" move that had happened after he called up Mr Sharif to wish him on his birthday last Friday, government sources had said.
It was PM Modi's first visit to Pakistan since taking office in 2014. It was also the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian prime minister in 12 years.
The meeting took place amid great cordiality. Mr Sharif had received PM Modi at the airport, greeted him with a hug and took him off in a chopper to his ancestral home near Lahore, where the two held talks for an hour. Mr Sharif's grand-daughter's wedding was scheduled the next day -- during he wore PM Modi's gift, a pink turban.
Earlier, the two prime ministers had met in Paris on November 30, on the sidelines of the Climate Change Summit. Their handshake and brief chat had paved the way for warmer ties.
Friday's visit came rapidly after the two nations resumed dialogue with a secret meeting between the national security advisors in Bangkok earlier this month.
Thereafter, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj visited Islamabad for a multi-lateral meeting on Afghanistan, when she also met her Pakistani counterpart and Mr Sharif.
While many welcome the radical approach to ties with Pakistan away from the media glare and politics, the opposition has been deeply critical.