“The infiltration has not stopped from Pakistan and militancy is going on, how it is possible we hold talk with Pakistan”, he said, asking “what forced India to hold talks with Pakistan”.
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Eleven Taliban suicide attackers on Tuesday breached the high-security Kandahar air field, which also houses a joint NATO-Afghan base, taking families hostage and triggering pitched firefights with soldiers.
“We are pleased that Pakistan is hosting the Heart of Asia Summit”.
The Indian external affairs minister said that Foreign Secretaries of the two countries had been asked to prepare the modalities and schedule of the meetings of all the pillars of the newly agreed Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue Process.
Earlier Ms. Swaraj and the Indian delegation comprising Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and India’s envoys to Pakistan and Afghanistan called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at his office in Islamabad.
The US has worked hard to ensure the presence of both Ghani and Swaraj at this meeting that is crucial to its post withdrawal strategy. The nervousness has been evident in its close monitoring of the Heart of Asia conference, with the regional countries clearly crucial now to the process.
In response, Ghani pointed out that an offensive by the Pakistani military against Pakistani Taliban has sent an influx of Pakistanis into Afghanistan.
All previous attempts to bring the dialogue on track had failed and the skirmishes along the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir in recent months have heightened tensions.
He said that peace in Afghanistan is crucial for peace in the region.
“At the trilateral and bilateral meetings we had this afternoon, the main discussion item has been the peace process in Afghanistan”.
Fighting between the militants and Afghan security forces was continuing on Wednesday and at least 18 people had been killed, Afghan officials said. Military Adventurism of a kind propagated at times in India by the BJP and its affiliates is a clear “no no” insofar as Washington is concerned.
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But the fragile rapprochement between Afghanistan and Pakistan didn’t last.
