New Delhi: Despite tensions at the border and Line of Control, Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif respectively, continue to exchange gifts.
As per a report in an English newspaper, Sharif has sent across the border a box of Pakistani mangoes, mostly Sindhri and Chausa.
The box was delivered to PM Modi on Wednesday evening.
The development came just days after India cancelled the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan after the latter's envoy here, Abdul Basit, met Kashmiri separatists despite New Delhi's objection.
The mango diplomacy is being seen as an attempt by the embattled Pakistani PM to reach out to his Indian counterpart.
Diplomatic experts say the move could also be aimed at hinting to India that Pakistan was looking forward to a meeting between Sharif and Modi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in the US later this month.
That meeting appeared to have been scuttled by growing hostilities along the border and the Basit episode.
The report further said that mangoes were sent not just to PM Modi, but also to President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
It may be recalled when Sharif had visited India earlier this year for PM Modi's swearing-in, the Indian PM had gifted his Pakistani counterpart a shawl for his mother.
Sharif, later in return, sent a saree for Modi's mother from Pakistan.
