India-Pakistan talks collapse over Kashmir

The two nuclear-armed neighbors have traded charges against each other for terrorist attacks in their respective territories.

Sartaj Aziz, adviser to the prime minister of Pakistan on national security and foreign affairs was due to arrive in New Delhi on Sunday to meet his counterpart, Ajit Doval. Sohail Shahzad / EPA

New Delhi // The collapse of peace talks between India and Pakistan hours before they were to begin yesterday has raised questions about the arch-rivals’ willingness to overcome mutual distrust, built since their separation almost seven decades ago.

On Saturday, Pakistan said it could not accept India’s “preconditions” for the talks due to take place in New Delhi.

Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said on Saturday that apart from yesterday’s meeting, two other high-level gatherings of officials had been planned to discuss border and ceasefire breaches.

Cross-border shelling in Kashmir this month has killed several civilians on both sides.

This is the second time the nuclear-armed neighbours have cancelled talks since Indian prime minister Narendra Modi took office in May last year, with both sides engaging in a war of words before the two-day meeting of their top security advisers.

Since Mr Modi and Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, agreed on the talks in Russia last month, ceasefire breaches across the countries’ border have increased.

“We have already described the cancellation of the national security advisers’ meeting by Pakistan as unfortunate,” a senior foreign ministry official said yesterday, referring to an earlier tweet by the ministry.

“Now, the fate of those other two meetings is also not clear. It will take a few days for some more clarity.”

Ms Swaraj had given Islamabad until midnight on Saturday to agree to restrict the NSA talks to terrorism only after a row over Pakistan’s plan to meet Kashmiri separatist leaders and its insistence on broadening the agenda.

Ms Swaraj insisted that what Pakistan described as preconditions were actually “the agenda for NSAs to meet, which both leaders agreed to in Ufa”. Ufa is the Russian city where the gathering was proposed.

In response to Ms Swaraj’s comments, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said: “The scheduled NSA-level talks cannot be held on the basis of the preconditions set by India. We have come to the conclusion that the proposed NSA-level talks between the two countries would not serve any purpose, if conducted on the basis of the two conditions laid down by the minister.”

India objected to Pakistan’s intentions of meeting separatists from Kashmir. Pakistan wanted a wider agenda. India called Pakistan’s decision unfortunate.

Ms Swaraj claimed Mr Sharif was under domestic pressure to pull out.

In August last year, India called off meetings between the countries’ foreign secretaries because Pakistan wanted to meet Kashmiri leaders as has been customary. But that is now opposed by the Indian government led by nationalist Mr Modi.

The prospects of the talks had been clouded in recent weeks by militant attacks and border skirmishes.

Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region since both gained independence from Britain in 1947.

About a dozen militant groups have been fighting since 1989 for the independence of the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.

* Reuters, Agence France-Presse