India’s positive response to Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s call for a dialogue

Swaraj to discuss Kartarpur corridor with Pak foreign minister

NEW DELHI(TIP): India on Thursday, September 20, accepted Pakistan’s proposal for talks between the Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the ongoing 73^rdannual UN General Assembly session in New York.

“On the request of the Pakistani side, a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi will take place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly at a mutually decided date and time,” said Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.

India’s response came within hours of the news that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan proposed talks between the two senior Ministers. However, India said the talks would not be aimed at a broader scheme of dialogue.

The MEA spokesperson emphasized that despite agreeing to the meeting, India stuck to its position that talks and terror could not go together.

He said, “This [the upcoming meeting] does not indicate any change as far as our policies on terrorism and cross-border terrorism are concerned.”

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan proposed the new round of talks in a letter to his Indian counterpart, handed over on September 17.

“Building on the mutual desire for peace between our two countries, I wish to propose a meeting between Foreign Minister Qureshi and External Affairs Minister Swaraj, before the informal meeting of the SAARC Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York,” he said, seeking resumption of the dialogue started by his predecessor Nawaz Sharif. The Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue stalled after the January 2016 terror strike on the Pathankot airbase.

In the letter, Mr. Khan also suggested that the Foreign Ministers discuss the holding of the SAARC summit in Islamabad, which has been delayed by India’s reluctance to join.

However, the MEA spokesperson said India’s position on joining the SAARC summit in Islamabad remained unchanged.

“Time and again we have said that the atmosphere in the region is not conducive. Under the shadow of cross-border terrorism, it is difficult to hold the summit that is to be hosted by Pakistan.”

Minister of State for Agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, while addressing a presser at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, responded to questions on the proposed meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries, announced a day after the body of a Border Security Force jawan was found with obvious torture marks.

“We must have faith in the Indian forces that they would retaliate at an appropriate time. There should not be any politics on the bodies of martyrs,” he said.

Amid a political row over the Kartarpur Sahib corridor opening issue, India has announced that it will raise the matter formally with Pakistan once again next week.

The issue will be flagged by India when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj travels to New York for UNGA (United Nations General Assembly). Swaraj will hold a meeting with her Pakistani counterpart Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi along the UNGA sidelines, announced India today. MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar clarified that no formal proposal for opening up of the nearly 4-km long corridor revered by Sikh pilgrims has been received from Islamabad.

“Even now, we have not received any official communication that the Pakistani government is willing to consider this matter. EAM will, therefore, raise this issue in her meeting with the Pakistani Foreign Minister on the sidelines of UNGA,” said Raveesh Kumar.

India also underlined that despite several requests, including during late PM Vajpayee’s Lahore visit in 1999, to consider a visa free visit to the Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara, the shrine is still not a part of the list under the 1974 Protocol. The Protocol lists out the religious shrines between India and Pakistan to facilitate visits of pilgrims from each side. Subsequently the matter was raised between 2004 and 2005 by former PM Manmohan Singh, former Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal and at the Foreign Secretary level talks.

“In 2005, Pakistan agreed to allow visit to three shrines with visas, including to Kartarpur but did not include it in Protocol. In 2008, the then EAM (External Affairs Minister) raised the issue of Kartarpur Sahib corridor with the then Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. However, there has not been any official response from Pakistani side since then,” said Raveesh Kumar.

Incidentally, Qureshi is now back in the Imran Khan government as the Pakistani Foreign Minister.

The matter snowballed into a fresh controversy following visit of Punjab Minister Navjot Sidhu to Islamabad for Imran Khan’s swearing in ceremony and his interaction with Pak Army chief Bajwa reportedly on the matter. Since then political parties have traded charges in the state while trying to stake claim as the credible interlocutor on the matter. Sidhu as well as Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Badal wrote letters to Swaraj on the matter.