John Kirby, Spokesman of US State Department, said that his country was disappointed that the meeting between the two countries’ NSAs are not taking place.
However, he termed the meeting of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Premier Narendra Modi at the Russian city of Ufa as encouraging.
The meeting between the security advisers of the two South Asian nations was called off just as PM Nawaz’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz was set to leave for India.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office, in its statement, announced that the talks cannot be held on the basis of the condititions set by the neighboring country.
Earlier, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said that the leaders of the two countries had agreed in Ufa for talks over terrorism and violence to create conducive atmosphere for dialogue over bilateral contentious issues.
She was of the view that according to the spirit of Simla agreement no third party could be involved in bilateral issues.
The minister said that if Pakistan’s National Security Advisor wants to come he is welcome but talks will only be on terrorism and the agenda of talks will not be expanded to other issues.
Indian authorities were also demanding Pakistan not to hold talks with Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders who were invited at the reception at Pakistan’s High Commission.
Earlier foreign office in Islamabad said that “We are deeply disappointed at the statement of the Spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, putting forth pre-conditions for official talks to take place with Pakistan at the level of the National Security Advisors.”
