India, Pakistan Foreign Secretaries to meet on January 15: sources

New Delhi: The Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan will meet on January 15 in Islamabad, the sources said on Friday.

The latest development came hours after PM Narendra Modi, in a surprise visit, met his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on Friday.

Though there was no official announcement to this effect, sources said that Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will travel to Islamabad to hold talks with Sartaj Aziz, the Pakistani Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs.

The meeting will discuss modalities of bilateral comprehensive dialogue, which was announced during the visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Islamabad earlier this month.

On December 23, the neighbouring country had proposed talks between their foreign secretaries to discuss all the outstanding issues in the middle of January.

According to sources, India had accepted the proposal. The peace process was set in motion when the prime ministers of the two countries met in Paris on November 30 on the sidelines of Climate Change Conference, which was followed by the national security advisers' meeting in Bangkok a week later.

Later, the External Affairs Minister visited Pakistan to attend Heart of Asia Conference.

Today, in a surprise move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Lahore and greeted his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday.

They held talks and decided to open ways for peace for the "larger good" of the people of the two countries.