Pakistan did not figure in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's New Year call list as he dialled the leaders of the neighbouring countries and highlighted India's commitment to the "Neighbourhood First" policy. In his conversation with the leaders of Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal, PM Modi focused on the "vision of shared peace, security, prosperity and progress for all of India's friends and partners in the region", the government said in a statement.
On February 2019, a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed killed 40 paramilitary soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama. After a few days later, the Air Force carried out the strike on a Jaish terror camp in Pakistan's Balakot, to which Pakistan retaliated, but failed to harm any Indian installations.
In the months that followed, Pakistan alternated between calls for resumption of dialogue and raising Kashmir in every international forum, including the United Nations General Assembly. India reiterated its stance that talks and terror cannot go hand in hand.
Modi congratulated his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina on her re-election as the chief of the Awami League for three years. Modi in his conversation with Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister agreed to further enhance ties this year.
This is PM Modi's first New Year after he won a second term with a massive victory in the national election held in April-May last year.