NEW DELHI (TIP): Moscow endorsed New Delhi’s view that India and Pakistan should resolve all outstanding disputes through bilateral talks in accordance with the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999.

After New Delhi dismissed Islamabad’s claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently offered to mediate between India and Pakistan, Moscow, too, made it clear that no third party had any role in resolving the dispute between the two South Asian neighbours.

A spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian government emphasised that Moscow’s “principled” position on resolving India-Pakistan differences remained “unchanged”. “The differences between Islamabad and New Delhi should be resolved by them on a bilateral basis in accordance with the provisions of the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999,” said a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian government.

The statement came after media reports quoted Nafees Zakaria, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Pakistan government, saying that Putin offered to mediate between New Delhi and Islamabad.