Despite tensions: India says NSA-level talks will go ahead as planned

NEW DELHI:

A senior Indian official said on Saturday that talks between the national security advisers (NSA) of India and Pakistan will take place as per schedule despite tensions on the border.

“The NSA-level talks between India and Pakistan will take place as expected later this month,” Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday said amid questions whether the meeting should be held in the wake of recent incidents on border.

“I don’t know what is going on in the mind of the Pakistan establishment. Certainly, the government of India’s position is very clear that NSA-level talks will continue,” Sitharaman told reporters at the BJP headquarters when asked if recent incidents would affect the talks.

The NSA-level talks are expected to take place in New Delhi later this month, as a follow up to the decisions taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Premier Nawaz Sharif in the Ufa city of Russia, last month.

Asked if the government of India is in support of the decision of Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to boycott the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Islamabad, Sitharaman said it was the domain of the speaker, but the government agrees with it.

“Obviously, the government of India is on the same page,” she said about the decision taken after Pakistan refused to invite Jammu and Kashmir Assembly speaker to the Commonwealth parliamentary moot being held in Islamabad from September 30 to October 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2015.