Axing talks by Pakistan unfortunate: Rajnath

Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India had agreed in Russian town of Ufa that all outstanding issues between the two countries will be discussed at talks between two National Security Advisers.

“Any decision on their future can not be made without their opinion and consultation”, Sharif said during a cabinet meeting yesterday.

Pakistani media today blamed India for the cancellation of first-ever NSA-level talks by setting “pre-conditions” ahead of National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz’s visit to New Delhi, in a blow to the efforts to normalise their bilateral ties.

He was responding to questions on talks between the national security advisors of India and Pakistan that were called off by Islamabad at the last moment.

In response to Swaraj’s comments, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said “the scheduled NSA level talks can not be held on the basis of the preconditions set by India”.

India said the talks would be confined to terrorism while Pakistan said the agenda should include Kashmir, the Himalayan region that both countries claim in its entirety but administer in parts. “No country has taken such stern action against terrorism as Pakistan did”, he stated.

He said that India wanted to have some mechanism to tackle terrorism and that was the main understanding of the Ufa meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. He, however, insisted that Pakistan’s agenda of the NSA talks was in line with the Ufa joint statement.

Pakistan said “talks can not be held on the basis of the preconditions set by India”.

Pakistan earlier said it was never expecting the talks to lead to any breakthrough and the goal was only to reduce tensions between the neighbours.

There is nothing new about Pakistan’s commitment to support the cause of separatism in Kashmir and there is nothing new about New Delhi’s inability to handle the local separatists – sometimes with kid gloves and other times with an iron fist.

The cancellation of NSA level talks were termed unfortunate by Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

On the other hand, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha said India should not engage with Pakistan till it was “absolutely certain” about the outcome.

Both countries have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from Britain in 1947, when the Asian subcontinent was divided into Islamic Pakistan and secular and Hindu-majority India.