Pakistan cancels peace talks with India
Pre-set conditions for the meetings, negotiated agenda called unacceptable
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan announced Saturday that it was pulling out of talks with India scheduled to begin next week in New Delhi, saying the conditions set by India for the meeting were not acceptable.
The decision came as the two countries traded barbs over Pakistan’s plans to meet with Kashmiri separatist leaders while in India.
The disagreement weighed heavily on both sides as each positioned itself to blame the other for the failure to hold the talks. India had also stressed that it wanted terrorism to be the only item on the agenda while Pakistan wanted to discuss the dispute over the Kashmir region, which is claimed by both sides. ‘Conducive atmosphere’
A statement by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that, after reviewing an Indian news conference by the minister for external affairs, Pakistan concluded that high-level talks “would not serve any purpose.”
Earlier Saturday afternoon, the Indian external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, denied that India was calling off the talks.
She spoke of the need for a “conducive atmosphere” for discussion and insisted that the Pakistani representatives should not meet with a coalition of the Kashmiri separatists.
Swaraj urged the Pakistani national security adviser, Sartaj Aziz, not to expand the scope of the talks “beyond terrorism.”
She added that Pakistan had until Saturday night to respond to India’s assertions, which she denied were “preconditions.”
Last year, analysts on both sides said Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, seen as a hard-liner, could propel a dialogue because he would be more immune to criticism from those who opposed talks.
But while previous Indian governments have grudgingly tolerated meetings between Pakistani officials and Kashmiri separatists, Modi’s government has now twice signaled that it will not.
Last year, India called off highlevel talks when a top Pakistani diplomat met with Kashmiri separatist leaders.
“India is quite clearly saying, ‘You have met the Hurriyat guys before, but that’s not going to happen now,’” said C. Raja Mohan, a foreign-policy analyst in New Delhi, referring to advo- cates of Kashmiri separatism.
“From India’s perception the context has changed” from earlier years, Mohan added.
“It’s a table for two. It’s not a table for three.” ‘Dangerous faceoff’
Swaraj said there had been 91 cease-fire violations since Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan met in Russia last month.
She said there had been domestic pressure to cancel the talks because of the violations and because of two attacks in July and early August in Punjab province and in Jammu and Kashmir state.
“India’s political leadership is quite strong to withstand any kind of pressure, and we are withstanding those pressures,” Swaraj said.
“But Pakistan leadership is not able to withstand the pressure.”
Earlier Saturday, Shabir Shah, a Kashmiri separatist leader, was detained at the Delhi airport, where he had arrived to meet Aziz, the Press Trust of India reported.
In a telephone interview from Srinagar, the capital of Indianadministered Kashmir, another leader of the Kashmiri separatist coalition, Yasin Malik, called Kashmiris “the principal party in the dispute,” adding that lasting peace was unattainable without consulting them.
“Talks between the national security advisers should have taken place,” said Masood Khan, the director general of the Islamabad-based Institute of Strategic Studies, a research group.
“Absence of dialogue is pushing the two nuclear-armed countries to the brink of a dangerous faceoff.”
Though Sharif is said to be eager to improve relations with India, analysts said he would not abandon the focus on Kashmir, which remains important to Pakistan’s powerful military.
“The civilian and military leadership have no choice but to be on the same page on Kashmir for such high-profile talks,” Khan said. “Indians would miscalculate if they think that there is a fissure that they can exploit.”