Speculation is rife over whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif will have a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Both the leaders are likely to stay in the same Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
Modi and Sharif will be arriving in New York on September 24 and there are high chances of the two leaders at least running into each other at the iconic hotel.
Modi choosing Waldorf Astoria to stay is a break from tradition. In the past, Indian PMs have always stayed at the New York Palace Hotel. Not just India, US President Barack Obama will also be breaking the tradition by not staying at the Waldorf Astoria. The movie by Obama comes amid fears of surveillance and bugging at the hotel now owned by the Chinese.
The New York Palace has traditionally been the hotel where Indian heads of government stayed when they came for the UNGA. Modi in 2014 and before him Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had stayed at the New York Palace.
Modi and Sharif last met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Ufa, Russia. The meeting had ended with an announcement that Modi would visit Islamabad in 2016 for the SAARC summit, but no commitment was made on restarting the dialogue between the two countries.
Amid repeated incidents of ceasefire violations along the border, India and Pakistan agreed to exercise restraint and work for defusing the situation on Line of Control (LoC) as senior Army officers of the two countries held a Flag Meeting in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday.
Pakistani troops have violated the ceasefire 25 times in September 2015, shelling Indian civilian and military positions using 120 mm, 82 mm mortars, Rocket Projectile Grenades (RPGs) and automatic weapons, according to Indian officials.
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