No India-Pakistan talks at UNGA after Islamabad insisted Sushma Swaraj meet Sartaj Aziz?

NEW DELHI: India had proposed NSA-level dialogue with Pakistan at the UNGA in New York last month, but the proposal had to be abandoned after Islamabad insisted that such a meeting should also be accompanied by a dialogue between the foreign ministers of the two countries.

According to Pakistani sources, Islamabad wanted its NSA Sartaj Aziz, who is effectively its foreign minister too, to have a separate dialogue with foreign minister Sushma Swaraj as a condition for talks between Aziz and India's NSA Ajit Doval.

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India then rolled back its proposal, saying what Pakistan was asking for was against the spirit of what PM Narendra Modi and his counterpart Nawaz Sharif had agreed to in their July meeting in Russia's Ufa.

The Ufa statement mentioned a dialogue between the NSAs, not between the foreign ministers or secretaries.

When asked if India had indeed made such a proposal at the UNGA, India responded by saying the sequencing of any dialogue between India and Pakistan had to be done in keeping with what the two countries had agreed to in Ufa.

"Where is the question of having a meeting between the foreign ministers when it was never a part of the Ufa agenda," said MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup.

In effect, going by what was revealed to TOI by top Pakistani sources, what played out in New York was essentially a repeat of what transpired between the two countries ahead of the aborted NSA dialogue here in August. Pakistan had then also proposed that foreign secretaries meet on the sidelines of the dialogue between the NSAs here.

The reasoning in both the cases was that NSAs could focus exclusively on terrorism, as India wanted, if foreign ministers or secretaries met around the same time to discuss other issues, most importantly for Pakistan, the Kashmir issue.

Ever since the joint statement issued by foreign secretary S Jaishankar and his counterpart Aziz in Ufa didn't specifically mention J&K, Pakistan has gone on an offensive over the issue repeatedly saying that no dialogue is possible between the two countries if Kashmir is not a part of the agenda.

India in August too did not allow a meeting between the foreign secretaries saying that this was not what was decided in Ufa.

The Ufa statement only mentioned a meeting between the NSAs to discuss all issues connected to terror. Other meetings agreed to were between the DGMOs and BSF and Pakistan Rangers.

As is now well known, Sharif wanted a mention of J&K in the Ufa statement but was prevailed upon by the Indian side to leave that out and make do only with a reference to the need for discussing "all outstanding issues".

However, with the BJP projecting the statement as a victory for India, Aziz had to clarify that all outstanding issues meant Kashmir and that without that issue dominating the agenda, there was going to be no dialogue with India.

With a reiteration in New York of the seemingly inalienable positions taken by both sides, and with Pakistan not willing to give up on Hurriyat, it might already be curtains for the 'thaw' witnessed in Ufa.