India’s Modi congratulates new Pakistan PM Sharif

In a rare show of goodwill between the leaders of the two nuclear-armed adversaries, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated his Pakistani counterpart Shehbaz Sharif on taking back the top job on Tuesday.

On Monday, Sharif took the oath of office as prime minister for the second time following an election tainted by allegations of widespread vote tampering.

The 72-year-old’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-L), supported by the army, has forged a coalition government with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), their longtime opponent, and a few minor factions, keeping out supporters of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, who garnered the majority of seats.

“Congratulations to @CMShehbaz on being sworn in as the Prime Minister of Pakistan,” Modi said in a post on social media platform X.

India and Pakistan are bitter adversaries with longstanding political tensions.

Since the two countries were split apart with the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, they have engaged in three major wars and countless smaller disputes.

However, compared to his predecessor Khan, Sharif is viewed as being more conciliatory toward New Delhi in India.

When Sharif was Pakistan’s powerful Punjab province’s chief minister in 2013, he made an unusual travel to India for a senior politician in his country.

He visited his family’s ancestral village on the Indian side of the frontier and met with then-prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, along with other officials.

Modi also attended a Sharif family wedding during a surprise trip to Pakistan in 2015, a year after the Hindu nationalist leader took office.

Nawaz, the older brother of Sharif and the prime minister at the time, hosted him.

Under Modi, the populist leader vying for a third term in office in the general elections scheduled for April, Hindu nationalism has grown in India.

In 2019, after a disagreement over India’s attempt to strengthen its hold over the portion of Kashmir it controls, the two nations downgraded their diplomatic ties during Khan’s administration.

The Himalayan territory is split between the two nations and fully claimed by both. It is the scene of a protracted and lethal insurgency against Indian rule.

This article has been posted by a News Hour Correspondent. For queries, please contact through [email protected]
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