Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was willing to attend talks on the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart, the sources said, stressing that cross-border terrorism was central to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir state.
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Jaishankar said that the issue of terrorism makes the Indo-Pak relationship hard to grow.
Referring to Indo-Pak ties, he said India made every effort in the last two years to improve relationship with Pakistan.
India on Wednesday rejected Pakistan’s proposal to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks on Kashmir and made it clear that terrorism was “central” to its relations with Islamabad, whose different view and attitude has made it hard for bilateral ties to grow.
“Also the challenge of more a predictable access to nuclear energy at a time when we are looking to expand that sector as part of our meeting our Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) commitments under Paris agreement”, he said.
Jaishankar was interacting with journalists at Foreign Correspondents’ Club in New Delhi during which he touched upon a wide range of issues including challenges on foreign policy front and India’s engagement with major powers like US, Russia and China.
Briefing reporters on the Envoys Conference recently, Aziz said, “As for India, the Envoys Conference noted that India’s policy of not engaging in a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan was not conducive for peace in South Asia”.
Jaishankar stressed on the need to go extra mile for India’s neighbours and said, “As biggest country of region, we have to go the extra mile, we’ve to reach out to our neighbors, we have to make them feel secure”.
On reports that the Prime Minister may not travel to Venezuela next month to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, the sources said it has not been decided who will represent India at the conclave.
During his Independence Day speech Narendra Modi had claimed that people of Balochistan, Gilgit, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir had thanked him and expressed their gratitude.
Sources told DawnNews the Foreign Office is now preparing a response to India’s reply keeping in mind Pakistan’s historical stance on certain issues, as well as the ongoing situation in Kashmir.
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They said all related issues will be discussed during his visit.
