Islamabad: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Pakistan next year, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said here on Wednesday.
Modi will participate in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, Sushma Swaraj told the media.
Sushma Swaraj said she would accompany Modi during his visit, Geo TV reported.
Swaraj is in Islamabad to participate in the Heart of Asia Conference where she spoke today.
Speaking at the conference, she said it was time that India and Pakistan displayed maturity in doing business with each other.
Also Read: Nothing can benefit Afghanistan more than direct access to India's markets: Sushma Swaraj
"It is time we display maturity and self confidence to do business with each other and strengthen regional trade and cooperation," Sushma Swaraj said in her address at the Heart of Asia Summit here.
She added that on "our part, India is prepared to move our cooperation at a pace which Pakistan is comfortable with. But today let us at least resolve to help Afghanistan -- in the best traditions of good neighbourliness".
Terror hubs shouldn't be allowed anywhere: Sushma Swaraj
Sushma said the UN Secretary General had noted in his latest report on Afghanistan that the country continues to be threatened most by terrorism and not tribal or ethnic rivalries. In the past few months, terrorism had “grown in both intensity and scope” and terrorists had “made concerted efforts to capture and hold territory”.
Swaraj said India is willing to work with Pakistan to change things in the realm of trade. “Let me take this opportunity to extend our hand to Pakistan as well. It is time that we display the maturity and self-confidence to do business with each other and strengthen regional trade and cooperation,” she said.
India is prepared to move cooperation at a “pace which Pakistan is comfortable with”. She added: “But today, let us at least resolve to help Afghanistan – in the best traditions of good neighbourliness – through more effective transit arrangements.”
Afghanistan will benefit immediately if it is provided full and direct overland access to India's markets so that it can take advantage of the zero duty regime for its exports, she said.
She also invited the ministers for the 6th Heart of Asia summit to be held in India in 2016.
