Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Pakistan to attend the SAARC Summit likely to be held in September 2016, in what will be the first prime ministerial visit here from India in 12 years.

The disclosure of Modi’s visit was made by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here in yet another indicator of a positive turn in bilateral ties after the recent chill.

“He will be coming,” Swaraj told reporters when asked if Modi will visit Pakistan to attend the Summit.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the last Indian Prime Minister to visit Pakistan who had come here in January 2004 and attended the SAARC summit besides holding talks with then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Vajpayee’s successor Manmohan Singh did not visit Pakistan despite his desire to do so.

Earlier, Indian officials said Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to attend the SAARC Summit was a reflection of the Ufa joint statement.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had invited Modi for the SAARC Summit when they had met for a bilateral meeting in the Russian city of Ufa in July.

The meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is slated to be held in Pakistan in September next year.

Swaraj arrived here on a two-day visit to attend a multilateral conference on Afghanistan.

In her address at the meet today, she said it was time the two countries display “maturity and self-confidence” to do business with each other as the world was rooting for a change and offered to move cooperation at a pace Pakistan is comfortable with.

Earlier Swaraj called on Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, amid efforts by both countries to revive the stalled dialogue process to improve ties. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Sharif’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz were among those present during the meeting.

Prime Minister Sharif also hosted a lunch for the heads of delegations at the conference.

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