Sushma Swaraj to Visit Pak, First Foreign Minister to do so Since 2012

New Delhi: Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold talks with Pakistan on Wednesday as part of efforts to restart a peace dialogue plagued by militant attacks and distrust. In the first such visit in three years, the foreign minister will lead an Indian delegation to Islamabad for talks on Afghanistan, India's foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said on his Twitter page.

Top Pakistani foreign affairs official Sartaj Aziz said Mrs Swaraj would meet him and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

"This is a good beginning, that the deadlock that was present has to some extent been removed," Mr Aziz, the prime minister's adviser on security and foreign affairs, told reporters.

The visit comes after the collapse of talks in August that raised questions about the ability of the nuclear-armed rivals to overcome animosity that has festered since independence seven decades ago. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Sharif resumed high-level contacts with a brief conversation at climate change talks in Paris last week and their national security advisers met in Bangkok on Sunday.Kanwal Sibal, a former Indian foreign secretary, said the foreign minister's visit showed the Modi government had softened its hardline stance towards Pakistan after realising that the lack of sustained talks yielded no returns.

"The countries can agree to disagree, but they will have to start talking," Mr Sibal said.

Taken by surprise, Indian opposition parties questioned the government's on-off approach to talks and a former foreign minister said the policy was being conducted in the shadows.

Since taking office in 2014, PM Modi has authorised a more robust approach to Pakistan, giving security forces the licence to retaliate forcefully along the border and demanding an end to attacks in Indian territory. Mrs Swaraj's visit is the first ministerial-level visit to Pakistan since the then foreign minister, SM Krishna, travelled to Islamabad in 2012, which was before Mr Modi became prime minister.