India feels that Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaz Aziz’s statement in Islamabad on Monday will not affect the meeting between the National Security Advisors and also talks between the chiefs of border agencies of the two countries.
Discuss terrorism The decision of the NSAs of India and Pakistan to meet in Delhi to discuss issues connected with terrorism as also the meeting of the border chiefs was agreed to after a meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Russia last week. It was part of a joint statement read out by the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries after the meeting. On Monday, Aziz told the media in Islamabad that no dialogue with India will take place unless Kashmir is included in the agenda.
This came after criticism in Pakistan especially from the opposition about the absence of any reference to Kashmir in the joint statement issued after a meeting between Modi and Sharif in Ufa, Russia on the sidelines of an international summit.
“It reasonably accurately reflects the substance of the talks. The reality is that as of that day this was our best sense of what was said at that meeting. Was it every word, every line every sentence? No. But this was a considered, honest, accurate, reasonable summary of the substance of the meeting,” sources said adding that the joint statement was seen by the two Prime Ministers before the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries read it out.
Open communication India also said that it will not be correct to say that there was non-communication between the Prime Ministers of the two countries pointing out that whenever suitable opportunities arose the two Prime Ministers spoke with one another.
In this context it was mentioned that Nawaz Sharif had called the Prime Minister soon after the earthquake in Nepal while Modi had called Sharif during Ramzan.
“Ufa was the only place after the SAARC Summit in Kathmandu that both the leaders were together in one place,” sources said.