India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in Russia on Friday.The meeting, which is the first meet after India called off foreign secretary talks, is expected to be held on the sidelines of the summit in Russia.

Modi and Sharif had last met in Kathmandu in November at the SAARC summit where they did not, however, hold any bilateral meeting.Earlier at the beginning of the holy month of Ramzan, the Prime Minister had called Sharif and extended his best wishes while stressing the need for having peaceful and bilateral ties.

During his telephonic conversation, Modi had also conveyed to his Pakistani counterpart India’s decision to release detained Pakistani fishermen on the occasion of Ramzan.

The call was seen by many as an attempt to reach out to Pakistan after leaders from both sides exchanged sharp comments after Modi’s critical remarks about Pakistan during his Bangladesh visit and in the wake of India’s military action in Myanmar.

India’s Prime Minister has raised the issue of China blocking action against Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over release of Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, with President Xi Jinping during delegation level talks in Russia’s Ufa.

Modi met Xi – their fifth meeting in a year – ahead of the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Addressing reporters, Foreign Secretary of India S Jaishankar said that the contentious issue of Lakhvi’s release and China’s move to block action against Pakistan at the UNSC came up during the talks.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly took up the issue of China blocking the resolution. He conveyed India’s concerns,” Jaishankar informed. “I can assume that the Chinese side was impressed with the clarity and directness in which it was conveyed. It was felt that we should keep talking on that,” he added.

At a meeting of the UN Sanctions Committee last month, India had sought action against Pakistan for release of LeT operations commander Lakhvi in the 26/11 trial in violation of a UN resolution, but the Chinese representatives blocked the move on grounds that New Delhi did not provide sufficient information.Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 26/11 terror attack, was released from a Pakistani jail in April.Meanwhile, the issue of USD 46 billion China-Pakistan economic corridor passing through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was also taken up during the meeting.“That corridor project covers PoK. Our concerns were expressed when PM Modi went to China, our concerns were reiterated ,” Jaishankar said.