New Delhi, Aug. 22 : Security expert Commodore (Retired) C. Uday Bhaskar on Saturday lauded External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for making India’s position in the proposed NSA-level meeting with Pakistan clear and said the latter has placed the upcoming talks with Islamabad in the right perspective.
“Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has clarified Indian position with a very commendable degree of confidence..Sushma Swaraj exuded both clarity and confidence in outlining the Indian position about engaging with Pakistan. She invoked the spirit of the Shimla Agreement and the spirit of Ufa. She made it clear that for India, this meeting is about terror,” Commodore Bhaskar told ANI.
“Sushma Swaraj has to be commended for the clarity and confidence with which she addressed a wide range of issues and also placed the NSA-level meeting in the appropriate perspective,” he added.
Addressing a press conference, Swaraj had asked Pakistan’s NSA Sartaj Aziz not to make Hurriyat a third party in the NSA-level talks between India and Pakistan.
“As per the Shimla Agreement, signed between India and Pakistan, whenever a dialogue will take place between the two nations, only India and Pakistan will be present,” Swaraj told the media.
She further said that all the outstanding issues will only be solved after the issues of terrorism and violence end.
Saturday’s press conference took place a day after India and Pakistan sparred through verbal and written statements over Islamabad’s persistence to meet with separatist leaders from Kashmir ahead of the proposed August 23 and 24 NSA level talks.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that its High Commissioner’s invitation to the Kashmiri Hurriyat leadership on August 23 was very much in keeping with the practice and tradition of the past many years.
While India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) sent across a strong message to Pakistan, insisting that there are only two stakeholders in the talks between India and Pakistan and said that New Delhi is committed to discuss the issues peacefully and bilaterally.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is scheduled to meet his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz for the talks in the national capital on Monday. (ANI)