NEW DELHI – India’s foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale may meet his Pakistancounterpart Tehmina Janjua on the sidelines of a multilateral conference onAfghanistan in Kabul this week, officials in the ministry of externalaffairs said.

This meeting, if it materialises, would the first such contact betweenIndia and Pakistan since National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met hisPakistan counterpart on December 26, 2017 in Bangkok, a meeting theexternal affairs ministry acknowledged almost two weeks later.

It also comes in the wake of talks between Janjua and US Deputy Assistantto the President and National Security Council Senior Director for Southand Central Asia Lisa Curtis in Islamabad on Monday.

Gokhale, who leaves for Kabul on Tuesday,will attend the Kabul conferencein which 25 countries are participating the next day.

Incidently, India will appoint a new ambassador to Afghanistan soon,officials said. Vinay Kumar, who is currently joint secretary (South) inthe external affairs ministry, has been picked for the post, theseofficials said.

Though it might not be a structured meeting, the very fact that theseniormost foreign ministry officials from the two countries could meet issignificant in view of the frosty ties between the neighbours.

The terror attack on Pathankot airbase in January 2016, for which Indiablamed Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, scuppered prospects of a dialogueprocess that two sides had discussed in December 2015.

However, the national security advisers of the countries have kept theirchannels of communication open. The “Kabul Process” meeting Gokhale isattending is an Afghan-government-led initiative with stakeholders to findlasting peace in the war-torn country, including the contours of engagingwith Taliban outfits. This is the second such meeting of the Kabul Process.