Indian PM makes surprise visit to Pakistan
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover in Pakistan on December 25 to meet his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, the first time an Indian premier has visited Pakistan in over a decade.
The visit, requested by Modi just hours earlier before he flew back home from Afghanistan, raised hopes that stop-and-start negotiations between the nuclear-armed neighbors might finally make progress after three wars and more than 65 years of hostility.
Sharif hugged Modi after he landed at the airport in the eastern city of Lahore and the two left by helicopter for Sharif's nearby family estate.
Modi was on his way back from a visit to Russia. He stopped off in the Afghan capital Kabul earlier on Friday, where he inaugurated a new parliament complex built with Indian help.
The Lahore visit comes after India and Pakistan resumed high-level contacts with a brief conversation between Sharif and Modi at climate change talks in Paris late last month, part of efforts to restart a peace dialogue plagued by militant attacks and long-standing distrust.