Indo-Pak foreign secretary-level talks fail, ball in PMs's court
India and Pakistan on Thursday failed to resolve bilateral differences, including Kashmir.
The issues will now be tackled by the two prime ministers at their meeting in New York on September 23.
A joint statement issued at the end of the three-day third round
of foreign secretary-level talks said, "Further consideration was
required for operationalisation of the mechanism" on dealing with
several contentious issues, including Kashmir, identified at the
last round in Islamabad in June.
Sources said the two sides got bogged down primarily on
the Kashmir issue and peace and security, including
confidence-building measures between the two countries.
The foreign secretaries agreed to convene the next round after the two
prime ministers met in New York.
The diplomats also decided that the two countries would expedite release of civilian detainees belonging to either side. It might be recalled that the two countries recently released the detained fishermen of each
other's country.
Emerging from the concluding session of the talks, Pakistan
Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed said that, despite several
uncertainties, ''we decided to come here in the interest of the
continuity of dialogue. It has given us a chance to understand each
other's position in a better manner.''
Later, Indian Foreign Secretary K Raghunath said India was fully
committed to continuing the dialogue which was essential for
normalising relations with Pakistan.
However, both sides remained evasive about contentious issues
like Kashmir.
UNI
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