Pakistan reiterated on day its stance that the country is ready for talks with India but will not accept any preconditions, Radio Pakistan reported.
“Any formal talks with New Delhi would have Kashmir as part of the agenda,” Foreign Office spokesperson Qazi Khalilullah said, while addressing a weekly briefing in Islamabad.
Pointing out that there were several United Nations’ resolutions on the Kashmir dispute, the spokesperson reiterated Pakistan’s desire to resolve the long-standing dispute in accordance with the UN resolutions and the aspirations of Kashmiri people.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan is ready to start a dialogue process with India only if Kashmir issue is on the agenda. “The entire world has endorsed our stance and both the countries need to hold dialogue on all outstanding issues, including that of Kashmir.”
Efforts to normalise relations between Pakistan and India took a blow last month when the scheduled talks between the national security advisers (NSAs) of the two neighbours were called off just hours before Sartaj Aziz was set to fly to New Delhi.
Prior to cancellation of talks, at a news conference in New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said Aziz was welcome in the Indian capital only if Pakistan assured India by midnight that the planned NSA meeting would focus only on terrorism-related issues and that Aziz would not meet Hurriyat leaders during his stay.
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