India on Thursday rejected media reports on cricket having featured in talks between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar in Islamabad.
The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said “reports are not accurate”. Jaiswal said no bilateral meeting happened during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit at Islamabad (Oct 15-16) except with Mongolia.
Jaiswal said no pull aside meeting took place either with Pakistan or anyone.
Referring to the questions on a ‘chat’ during lunch yesterday between Jaishankar and Dar, Jaiswal said some pleasantries were exchanged on sidelines of the meeting especially during lunch and dinner.
Some reports had surfaced that Jaishankar and Dar had met and talked about a possible India-Pakistan bilateral cricket series. The two cricketing rivals have not played any bilateral series since 2012 when Pakistan toured India for a T20I and ODI series.
Meanwhile, India has not played any match in Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup due to tensions between the two countries arising out of the Mumbai terror attacks. Pakistan has made three tours to India since 2008 but India hasn’t sent its team to Pakistan due to security concerns.
Pakistan also wants India to send its team for the ICC Champions Trophy, set to be hosted by the neighbouring nation next February.
Jaishankar met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at the multilateral event. Prior to his visit Jaishankar had clarified that India-Pakistan ties won’t feature during his Islamabad visit since it was for the SCO summit.
At the SCO summit, he delivered a veiled message aimed at Pakistan, stating that cooperation in areas like trade is unlikely to flourish if cross-border activities are characterised by terrorism.
