Acting tough, India today called off Foreign Secretary—level talks with Pakistan next week and conveyed a blunt message that it was interfering in India’s internal affairs by holding talks with Kashmiri separatists which was “unacceptable“.
Upset that despite being firmly told by Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh that Pakistan has to choose between “India or separatists” for talks, its top envoy here went ahead with the meeting, India said, “Therefore, under the present circumstances,...no useful purpose will be served by the Indian Foreign Secretary going to Islamabad next week.”
“Indian Foreign Secretary had conveyed to the Pakistan High Commissioner (Abdul Basit) today, in clear and unambiguous terms, that Pakistan’s continued efforts to interfere in India’s internal affairs were unacceptable.
“It was underlined that the Pakistani High Commissioner’s meetings with these so called leaders of the Hurriyat undermines the constructive diplomatic engagement initiated by Prime Minister Modi in May on his very first day in office,” Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry Syed Akbaruddin said.
Singh was to travel to Islamabad on August 25 to hold talks with her Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Chaudhry, nearly two years after the Indo—Pak talks were stalled due to incidents along the LoC.