PM Narendra Modi meets Nawaz Sharif on sidelines of Paris climate meet

Paris: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif met on Monday on the sidelines of the climate meet but no details were available immediately.

Modi and Sharif shook hands in a lobby of the Conference Centre and then sat down on a sofa where they were seen talking animatedly.

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However, no official details were immediately available on this apparently unscheduled chat between the two leaders.

Downplaying the chance encounter, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, "this was a brief exchange of courtesies in the Leaders Lounge. Prime Minister
meets many Heads of State/Government."

Swarup was responding to a query on the Modi-Sharif meet. Earlier, the Spokesperson had tweeted, "PM @narendramodi meets PM Nawaz Sharif at COP 21 in Paris," along with a picture of the two leaders shaking hands.

This is the first meeting between the two leaders after Ufa in Russia on June 10, where they held bilateral talks on the sidelines of multilateral conferences, and decided on number of steps to take forward the relationship.

Ties have been strained between the two neighbours over border firing and a series of ceasefire violations. Talks between National Security Advisors of the two countries were cancelled in August because of a dispute over the agenda. India wanted to discuss terror attacks and Pakistan insisted on raising Kashmir.