With regards the pre-condition regarding meeting with pro-Kashmir independence Hurriyat leaders, the Foreign Office statement said: “It has been pointed out repeatedly that it has been a long-standing practice that whenever Pakistani leaders visited India during the past twenty years, they have been meeting Hurriyat leaders“.
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Sushma Swaraj also said that what Aziz read at his press conference from the Ufa talks between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif was the “preamble” of the joint statement signed by both countries and not the operative part, which said there will be three meetings – between the NSAs to discuss terrorism, talks between the Border Security Force and Pakistani Rangers chiefs, and between the DGMOs.
It said it had proposed besides discussing terrorism, the modalities and possible time schedule for other outstanding issues like Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek, should also be discussed “in keeping with the Ufa statement”.
“I am still ready to go to New Delhi to hold talks without any preconditions”, he said. “We only reiterated that Pakistan respect the spirit of the Simla & Ufa Agreements to which it was already committed”, the spokesperson said in two tweets, shortly after the Pakistan Foreign Ministry made the announcement in Islamabad.
“Pakistan reiterates that the scheduled NSA level talks can not be held on the basis of the preconditions set by India“, a statement by the Pakistani Foreign Office said.
Islamabad said that after analysing Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s press conference, they “have come to the conclusion that the NSA talks would not serve any objective if conducted on the basis of the two conditions laid down by the minister”. India said this was unacceptable.
“Kashmir is a core issue and it should be discussed in talks”, he said.
[NSA talks: Ball to roll back into Pakistan’s court].
Sources informed OneIndia that Pakistan’s NSA, Sartaj Aziz is not coming to India tomorrow as they are not agreeable with the conditions that have been set by India.
She said the mandate for the NSA talks was to discuss terrorism related issues only and Aziz should stick to it, and there was no space for the Hurriyat in talks as per the Simla Agreement inked between both countries earlier.
Aziz also maintained that the core issue of Kashmir would be on the agenda of talks. Paksitan is not agreeable to the clause that the talks will be centric to terrorism only and the Kashmir issue will not be discussed.
“I expect that global think tanks and foreign policy experts will carefully ponder over this important question: Is it conceivable that a country like India will cancel the first ministerial interaction between the two countries since Mr. Modi’s take over, on such flimsy grounds, especially when the main goal of the meeting was to reduce tensions on the Line of Control and restore trust by addressing each other’s concerns regarding terrorist activities sitting across the table rather than through the media”, he said.
Describing India-Pakistan relations as a road “full of potholes, in which the auto gets stuck, the tyre gets deflated and there are sudden violent jerks”, she said both sides still manage to gather themselves and talk again.
“After handing over these dossiers to Mr Doval, I can then also share them with the UN Secretary General”, he said.
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“The reason for this regretful second cancellation, if it is happening, would be the same”, Aziz said, adding that the invitation to three-four Kashmiri leaders to a reception organised in New Delhi on Sunday was to “enable me to meet a cross-section of Indian political and business leaders”.
