ASSAM, NAGALAND CMS TAKE PART IN NAGA PEACE TALKS

KOHIMA: The Naga peace talks received a fillip on Tuesday, when the chief ministers of Nagaland and neighbouring Assam met with negotiators of the Indian government and the Isak Muivah-led National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) in Dimapur.

Three important meetings took place in Nagaland’s most populous city: between representatives of NSCN-(IM) and New Delhi’s emissary AK Mishra, between Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio and his Assamese counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, and between the chief minsters and Mishra, the latest in a line of interlocutors who is a retired special director of the Intelligence Bureau.

“At Dimapur today, we held a discussion with NSCN(IM) representatives in presence of Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio about the ongoing pece talks with GoI (Government of India) .... We are keen that the ongoing peace talks fructify into concrete results soon,” Sarma tweeted on Tuesday evening. Although details of the meetings were not immediately known, they were “positive” and the consultations will continue, according to people aware of the matter, including representatives of NSCN (IM), who declined to be named.

The people said future meetings could take place in Delhi next. HT could not independently confirm this.

Mishra, who will be in Nagaland till September 23, is scheduled to meet the working committee of seven Naga nationalist political groups with whom the central government had signed an “agreed position” in 2017.

The latest developments taking place in Nagaland since Mishra’s arrival a few days after Governor RN Ravi was transferred to Tamil Nadu have led to expectations of an early resolution to the decades-old Naga issue. However, it is unclear how New Delhi will balance two separate understandings with NSCN (IM) and the seven other groups. There is also the ceasefire agreement with the Niki Sumi-led faction of the NSCN (Khaplang) on September 8 last year.