India’s foreign secretary will be travelling to Bhutan on Sunday and go to Bangladesh next day before flying off from Dhaka to Islamabad on March three, as part of India's initiative to reach out to SAARC countries. India is not expecting any dramatic results from Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's visit to Pakistan. The media focus is centred on the Pakistan visit which comes seven months after India had called off foreign secretary-level talks, officials underlined that, while the basic objective of the trip was the SAARC outreach, bilateral matters may come up. 

"I would be surprised if there are any dramatic results in terms of bilateral ties when Jaishankar talks with the Pakistani side. How the visit impacts on the ties was difficult to predict at this point," said an official. India cancelled foreign secretary-level talks in August last year due to that the Pakistan High Commissioner held consultations with Kashmiri separatists. Using cricket diplomacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called leaders of four SAARC nations including Pakistan which, along with India, are participating in cricket World Cup. He had conveyed best wishes to their teams. Modi spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to tell him that Jaishankar will undertake a "SAARC yatra" soon to strengthen relationship with India's neighbourhood.

By Premji