India Will Have To Request PMs Meeting: Aziz

NEW DELHI: National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz said on Wednesday India will have to request Pakistan if it wants a meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in New York later this month, Indian media reported.

“Our position is very clear. India called off the NSA-level dialogue last month and the request for any meeting must come from you. India has to take the initiative,” Aziz said in a telephonic interview with the Hindustan Times. Islamabad has not yet received any request from New Delhi for a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Aziz told the Indian newspaper. “Nothing so far,” he said, “If there is a request, our stand is clear. We want a discussion on all outstanding issues, including Kashmir.”

Aziz clarified Pakistan will not have a “conditional” meeting with India in New York, underlining the mutual distrust between the two sides. “India only wants to talk terror and we want a discussion on all issues, including Kashmir,” the newspaper quoted Aziz as saying. Last month, India cancelled, at the eleventh hour, NSA-level talks scheduled to be held on August 24 between the national security advisers of the two countries. The talks were cancelled after Pakistan rejected India’s move to precondition the talks over a meeting between Hurriyat leaders and the top Pakistani diplomat.

This was the second time India cancelled the dialogue process between the two countries since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended the oath-taking ceremony of his Indian counterpart last year in New Delhi. In August 2014, India had called off the foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan after High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit held a meeting with the Hurriyat leaders. The prime ministers of both the countries are expected to stay at the same hotel in New York and officials do not rule out a “chance meeting” between prime ministers Nawaz and Modi. However, Pakistan has made it clear to the Indian government that it will keep meeting Hurriyat leaders. “Let me make it clear that we will continue to meet the Hurriyat. Even people in India are questioning the government on its rigid stand of us not meeting them,” Aziz said.

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