Foreign ministers Jaishankar, Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmoud Qureshi to participate in key meeting on Afghanistan today

Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will participate during a key meeting on Afghanistan, to be held in Dushanbe on Tuesday, alongside about 30 countries and a dozen regional and international organisations.

On Monday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reached Tajikistan’s capital for the meeting.

Sources, however, said no bilateral meeting has been scheduled thus far between the 2 foreign ministers. But since Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmoud Qureshi are going to be within the same meeting room — and given the thaw in relations with last month’s recommitment to the 2003 ceasefire — sources didn’t rule out a gathering .

This will be the primary time since the choice to stick to the ceasefire that the 2 foreign ministers will come face-to-face.

On Sunday, Qureshi had said that no meeting in Tajikistan had thus far been “finalised or requested” together with his Indian counterpart.

A few days ago, Jaishankar too said no meeting had been scheduled with Qureshi in Tajikistan. “My scheduling is ongoing . So far, I don’t think any such meeting [is scheduled],” he had said on March 26 at the India Economic Conclave in New Delhi .

On Monday, Jaishankar held separate talks together with his counterparts from Iran and Turkey. He also met Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani