New Delhi: The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will hold a rare meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly underway in New York, officials in New Delhi said Thursday.
The announcement comes after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi calling for a resumption of talks between the nuclear-armed foes.
High-level talks between India and Pakistan are rare. Indian media described the slated meeting as the first in nearly three years.
A spokesman for India's external affairs ministry said the New York tete-a-tete between Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan's Shah Mehmood Qureshi did not represent a shift in New Delhi's relations with Islamabad.
"This does not indicate any change in our policy on cross-border terrorism," spokesman Raveesh Kumar told reporters in the Indian capital.
The announcement comes as the already-fraught relationship between the rivals hit fresh roadblocks this week.
The death of an Indian border guard on Wednesday in Kashmir provoked outrage, with New Delhi accusing Pakistani forces of mutilating his corpse.
"It was a barbaric incident that defies logic and civilised behaviour. We will take it up with Pakistan in an appropriate manner," Kumar said.
Navjot Sidhu, an Indian cricketer-turned-politician, earlier came under fire after returning from Pakistan where he was filmed hugging the country's army chief.