Kathmandu: External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that meeting with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz on the sidelines of the SAARC summit was “out of courtesy”.
The ministers had a brief exchange of words as they passed each other during the summit.
To quell the speculations that started soon after, Swaraj said that it was basic courtesy.
“It is basic courtesy. If you meet ministers of other countries on an international platform, you greet each other,” she said while talking to reporters.
The brief interaction between the two ministers took place even as speculations are being made regarding a possible informal meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif.
However, both Swaraj and Aziz refused to comment about any possible meeting between the two leaders.
Sushma had arrived in Kathmandu yesterday to attend the 18th SAARC Summit.
The meeting, hosted by the Nepalese Foreign Minister, Mahendra Bahadur Pandey, will be attended by the ministers of all SAARC nations - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.
A four-member Afghani delegation led by the Foreign Minister and 10-member delegation led by Bangladeshi Foreign Minister will also be .
Similarly, Bhutan delegation will have four members, Indian and Sri Lankan nine members each, Pakistan seven members and Nepal will have have 17 members.