‘India, Pak foreign mins to meet on UNGA sidelines’

NEW DELHI: Foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will meet on sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the government announced Thursday, the first such high-level engagement since the suspension of dialogue between the two nations after the Pathankot air base terror attack in 2016.

Announcing the meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi, MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, however, made it clear it is not a resumption of the Indo-pak dialogue and India agreed to the meeting following a request from Pakistan.

He also insisted the decision doesn’t change the country’s position on cross-border terrorism.

During the meeting, likely to take place next week, India is expected to strongly raise the issue of terrorism emanating from the Pakistani soil.

The Swaraj-qureshi meeting will be the first engagement at this level since January 2016 when New Delhi halted the dialogue with Islamabad in the aftermath of Pathankot terror attack, for which India holds Pakistan-based groups responsible.

Indo-pak ties have nose-dived since then because of many terror strikes by Pakistan-based groups, which India retaliated by carrying out ‘surgical strikes’ in September 2016 across the LOC. India has been maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together.

“I must distinguish between a meeting and dialogue. This does not indicate any change in policy as far as our stand on terrorism, and cross-border terrorism is concerned,” the MEA spokesperson said at a media briefing.

Kumar said Swaraj would also attend the SAARC foreign ministers’ meeting on the sidelines of the UNGA. India has been maintaining that there cannot be any comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan till it stops cross-border terrorism.

India agreed to Swaraj-qureshi meeting following a letter to PM Modi by his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan seeking a ministerial interaction on the sidelines of the UNGA.