Pakistan

Pakistan will not accept any precondition for talks with India: FO

FO spokesperson says any formal talks with New Delhi will have Kashmir as part of the agenda

Web Desk September 10, 2015

Any formal talks with New Delhi will have Kashmir as part of dialogue’s agenda, said Foreign Office Spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah. PHOTO: PID

Pakistan reiterated on Thursday its stance that the country is ready for talks with India but will not accept any preconditions, Radio Pakistan reported.

"Any formal talks with New Delhi would have Kashmir as part of the agenda," Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah said, while addressing a weekly briefing in Islamabad.

Pointing out that there were several United Nations’ resolutions on the Kashmir dispute, the spokesperson reiterated Pakistan’s desire to resolve the long-standing dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions and the aspirations of Kashmiri people.

Read: Modi govt has been anti-Pakistan from day one: Aziz

Earlier this week, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan is ready to start a dialogue process with India only if Kashmir issue is on the agenda. “The entire world has endorsed our stance and both the countries need to hold dialogue on all outstanding issues, including that of Kashmir.”

Read: At 11th hour, NSA talks called off

Efforts to normalise relations between Pakistan and India took a blow last month when the scheduled talks between the national security advisers (NSAs) of the two neighbours were called off just hours before Sartaj Aziz was set to fly to New Delhi.

Prior to cancellation of talks, at a news conference in New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said Aziz was welcome in the Indian capital only if Pakistan assured India by midnight that the planned NSA meeting would focus only on terrorism-related issues and that Aziz would not meet Hurriyat leaders during his stay.

COMMENTS (12)

swetab | 8 years ago | Reply @Kabir Altaf: pakistan has to vacate its army from pok only then can the plebiscie take place which pakistan is not willing to do hence plebiscite cannot take place.

Kabir Altaf | 8 years ago | Reply @Indo: Pakistan is NOT going to "hand over" Azad Kashmir. Our position is that a plebiscite must be held and the wishes of the Kashmiri people must be ascertained. This means that all Kashmiris, from AJK, G-B, Jammu, the Valley, and Ladakh will vote on whether to join Hindu India, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, or become independent. Any solution must be acceptable to the Kashmiri people. Anyone who thinks Pakistan is going to give India any territory is totally delusional.

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Ravi | 8 years ago | Reply @Haider Rehman: You wrote, "We are NOT going to talk without Kashmir on agenda." Reconsider your statement and tell us if you don't see that itself as being a precondition?

Akhthar | 8 years ago | Reply If Pakistan doesn't want to talk, why would India care! There's no dependency for India on Pakistan whatsoever!

Bewildered | 8 years ago | Reply @Sameer: "India is already not interested in talk, so India will keep setting pre conditions" Repeat like this 2 more times, India will cause a stalemate and give Pakistan legitimate reason to raise Kashmir issue on every international forum. Your choice. @Indo: "only issue fOR India on Kashmir is ensure Pakistan hands over Pakistan controlled Kashmir" LOL. Please come and take. Will you please.

Pakistani | 8 years ago | Reply @Rohit: Wow.....if that is still the level and depth of thinking in India, we pray that it remains the same forever!! This is going to be easier than we thought.....so please continue with your 'plan' and Godspeed.

Indo | 8 years ago | Reply India has no problem discussing Kashmir. Common sense says that such discussions are not part of NSA talks. In other words Pakistan is not serious in talks. Either way only issue fOR India on Kashmir is ensure Pakistan hands over Pakistan controlled Kashmir.

ghazal | 8 years ago | Reply PAKISTAN foreign minister rahil sharaif must know how to initiate talks again. because Pakistani bargain position is on receding scale with each passing day. nawaz , with help from US and shanghai c-operation's help was able to pull India by its ears and got it to the table.

Vakil | 8 years ago | Reply Dear Pakistan FO (or whoever else that matters), India never has a 'problem' with talking about Kashmir! However it is India's prerogative to talk about it from its perspective/stance too, just like Pakistan's corresponding prerogative. And what is that stance? Everybody knows... hence Pakistan repeatedly gets wrong-footed. That is why nobody gets involved other than the routine lip service..

Haider Rehman | 8 years ago | Reply India wants to ignore Kashmir as much as possible on international level. We are NOT going to talk without Kashmir on agenda

Rohit | 8 years ago | Reply hahaha then we'll keep setting pre conditions having known that you you may cancel talks, so at least we can make excuse that from our side that we initiated , but you refused....hence talks cancelled...check mate !!!

Sameer | 8 years ago | Reply Good....because India is already not interested in talk, so India will keep setting pre conditions, and pak will keep refusing talk with any condition, thus there will be no talk...hence India get what it actually wanted

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