Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected the use of a bulletproof car provided by archrival India for next week’s summit of South Asian leaders in Kathmandu, a Nepalese official said yesterday.
Sharif “will be bringing his own car ... all other vehicles for [visiting] heads of countries have come from India,” Nepalese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Khaga Nath Adhikari said.
Adhikari denied that the move was a snub specifically targeted at India, whose tense ties with Pakistan have worsened since last month over some of the worst cross-border firing in years.
“It’s not that they have refused to use an Indian car ... when the US president travels, he also brings his own car, it’s not an issue,” he told reporters.
The leaders of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and Pakistan are to meet in Kathmandu on Nov. 26 and 27 for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit.
Recent exchanges of fire across the de facto border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, which both countries administer in part, but claim in full, have killed at least 20 civilians and forced thousands to flee their homes.
India called off peace talks in August after Pakistan first consulted Kashmiri separatists, a move some saw as a sign of a tougher stance by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new right-wing government.
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