Islamabad: The meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and India's Premier Narendra Modi hints "at the prospects for peace and the likelihood of trouble in the months ahead", said a Pakistani daily Wednesday.
The editorial "A new page?" appeared in the News International a day after Sharif and Modi met at New Delhi. Sharif along with other SAARC leaders attended the swearing-in ceremony of Modi Monday.
The daily said that Sharif's India trip for the inauguration of Modi was "in itself such a seismic event - the first time ever for a Pakistani leader - that it would have been unrealistic to expect any substantive breakthroughs".
"Instead, this was a battle for public relations and setting the ground for an improvement in relations further down the line. In this Nawaz excelled, particularly with the poignant touch of calling on former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his residence," it said.
Vajpayee's visit to Lahore to meet Nawaz is "still fondly remembered as a rare high point in Pakistan-India relations and served as a reminder to Modi that there is a history of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) engaging Pakistan positively".
The daily noted: "The meeting between Nawaz and Modi hinted both at the prospects for peace and the likelihood of trouble in the months ahead. Nawaz focused, as he always has, on engagement but Modi spoke mostly of terrorism, particularly the Mumbai attacks of 2008."
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