SCO Summit: Modi, Sharif exchange pleasantries amid frosty Indo-Pak ties

New Delhi: Hours after landing in the Kazakhistan capital Astana on Thursday where a much-awaited bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to take place on Friday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met and exchanged greetings with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, at the Astana Opera.

Sources said Mr. Modi enquired about Mr. Sharif's health after the surgery that the Pakistan premier had undergone last year. PM Modi also enquired about the well-being of Mr. Sharif' s family including his mother. PM Modi had met Mr. Sharif's family during his brief trip to Lahore in December, 2015. There was no formal bilateral meeting scheduled at Astana, Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of the SCO Summit since neither side had asked for it in view of the tension in Indo-Pak ties.

Ties with Pakistan have plummeted after Mr. Modi's Lahore visit, marked by incursions by the Pakistan military and irregulars across the LoC, as well as rising violence in Kashmir.