India on Friday said it was compelled to call off its 25 August foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan “due to a series of actions by the latter that were seen by the Indian government as not conducive to proceeding ahead”, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.
He said that India’s decision was a considered one which took into account all factors impinging on the India-Pakistan relations.
Describing the now cancelled foreign secretary-level meeting as “talks about talks” that would have led to a meaningful and substantive interaction between the two rival neighbouring countries, Akbaruddin said: “We felt it would not serve any purpose in the environment when there were diplomatic discussions on how to go ahead with it, a series of actions were taken, which were not conducive to proceeding ahead.”
India, in a surprise move on Monday, called off the talks after a warning to Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit not to meet with Kashmiri leaders went unheeded. The meeting between India’s Sujatha Singh and Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry of Pakistan were to be the first face-to-face talks between the foreign secretaries in almost two years, and followed an innovative effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve ties with India’s neighbours.
Modi had invited the leaders of all South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations for his swearing-in on 26 May.