India confirms NSAs met in Bangkok
The National Security Advisers (NSAs) of India and Pakistan met on December 26 in Bangkok, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed on Thursday.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said it was part of the mechanism to hold Pakistan accountable for the terrorism that emanates from its territory.
“We raised the issue of cross-border terrorism in those talks because our main issue is how to ensure the safety of our region from the scourge of cross-border terrorism. We have said earlier that talks and terror cannot go together but ‘talks on terror’ can definitely go ahead,” Mr. Kumar said, acknowledging that the NSA-level parleys are part of the ‘operational-level talks’ that take place between India and Pakistan, despite the breakdown in the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue (CBD) that was launched in December 2015.
The ‘talks on terror’ model to engage Pakistan is a break in India’s position that India had taken following the attack on the Pathankot airbase when New Delhi had cancelled the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue (CBD). CBD was launched by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during her visit to Islamabad on 9 December 2015.
The confirmation is significant as the MEA had maintained silence on the talks between Indian NSA Ajit Doval and his Pakistani counterpart Lt. Gen. Nasir Jannjua that were reported in the Pakistani and the Indian media last month. The meeting was held a day after the mother and wife of death row prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav met him in Islamabad, but MEA maintained that the two NSAs did not discuss Mr Jadhav’s case at all.
“This was a predetermined meeting and the date was decided in advance and it had nothing to do with things that were happening at that time,” the Spokesperson said answering a question on whether the two NSAs discussed the issue of Mr Jadhav. He maintained that the real issue discussed was ‘cross border terrorism’ from Pakistan that targets India.
The Spokesperson said that the NSA-level metings were part of an “operational-level dialogue” similar to the talks that are held between the DGMOs of both sides and between the border forces of two countries.
Officials indicated that the NSA-level meeting of 26 December marks a definite trend in which India will raise concerns on cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.
(Source: The Hindu)
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