PM Modi accepts invite for first Pakistan visit

India

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted an invitation Friday from his counterpart Nawaz Sharif to pay his first visit to Pakistan, signalling a new thaw in ties between the nuclear-armed rivals.

After months of stalemate and recriminations, Modi and Sharif spoke for around an hour while visiting Russia, the talks ending with an agreement by the Indian premier to attend a regional summit in Islamabad next year.

While analysts warned major obstacles still lay in the way of significant progress, a joint statement said both leaders recognised their "collective responsibility to ensure peace and promote development".

The statement included joint, albeit vague, commitments on some of the most contentious issues between them, including speeding up efforts to bring those behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks to justice.

While Sharif did attend Modi's inauguration in May last year, relations soon cooled amid flare-ups in violence along the border in Kashmir, the Himalayan region which is claimed by both countries.

Indian officials had previously refused to confirm Modi's participation at the next summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which is being held in Pakistan's capital.

But the statement said Sharif had used their talks in Russia as an opportunity to reiterate an earlier request for Modi to attend the summit, adding that "Prime Minister Modi accepted that invitation".

It will be the first time that Modi -- who has a reputation as a hardline nationalist -- has travelled to Pakistan since coming to power.

The two countries have fought three wars since the partition of the subcontinent in the wake of independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

Since 1989 several rebel groups have waged campaigns against the hundreds of thousands of Indian forces deployed in Kashmir, hoping to achieve independence or the territory's merger with Pakistan.

While the situation has been calmer since a 2003 truce, India accused Pakistan of killing one of its border guards on Thursday night in firing across the de-facto Kashmir border.