India, Pakistan must talk in neutral country: Farooq

Pakistan’s argument that it had been agreed at the meeting at Ufa between the prime ministers of both countries that modalities for discussing Kashmir and other outstanding problems would be on the agenda for talks between the NSAs were dismissed by Swaraj.

India and Pakistan will proceed with bilateral border talks as scheduled despite the latter calling off a meeting between the two countries’ National Security Advisors over the weekend, official sources said Monday.

Aziz said he will exchange the dossiers of Indian spy agency Research and Analyses Wing’s involvement with Pakistan, even if he doesn’t get a chance for a meeting with Doval.

Aziz said the Pakistan High Commission had invited the separatist leaders to enable him to meet a cross-section of leaders.

Asked what would happen if Pakistan did not agree to India’s demands regarding the agenda of the talks which had been due to take place Sunday in New Delhi, Swaraj replied: “Then talks won’t happen”. India is in favour of dialogue, ” Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. He said that terrorism, which India has been stressing on, was included in the eight-point composite dialogue process.

All leading newspapers carried the story about cancellation of NSA-level talks on the front page, highlighting the Indian “pre-conditions” which, according to local media, led to the breakdown of parleys.

They demanded that Pakistan must first must stop shelling India’s border areas before coming to the table for the talks. He also added that what India was trying to do was akin to controlling the guest list for his reception at the Pakistani Embassy.

A night before the meeting of Indo-Pak national security advisers (NSA), Pakistan said that peace talks with India can not be held.

Correspondents say that while it appears both sides are provoking one another to cancel the talks, Mr Modi is a pragmatist and knows his agenda of enhancing regional co-operation in South Asia will remain unfulfilled without a thaw in India-Pakistan tensions.

India insisted the dialogue, which was announced last month during a meeting in Russian Federation between its Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, had to be restricted to terrorism.

Pakistan termed meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders a routine been a long-standing practice while India raised objection over invitation to them ahead of NSA meet.