Resuming talks with Pak 'useless', says Congress

In the wake of Pakistan inviting India's Foreign Secretary for a dialogue on Kashmir, the Congress Party on Tuesday said there is no scope of resuming talks with the neighbour until it stops patronising terrorists and take stringent action against them.

Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said Pakistan brews terrorism and till the time it mends its ways, India should not resume talks with it.

"At this time, there is no point of resuming talks with Pakistan, because India has always taken a stand that it will not talk to Pakistan until it mends its ways. Till the time Pakistan does not stop encouraging terrorist organisation to attack India, we cannot think of working on our relationship," said Nirupam.

"It is useless to talk with Pakistan until it stops patronising the terrorists and the Pakistan army and ISI forfeit its support from the terrorist group and put a halt on this whole nexus and take an action against them," he added.

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry yesterday invited his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar to visit Islamabad for a dialogue on Kashmir even as New Delhi had last week rejected Foreign Affairs Adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz's statement that his country has planned to invite the Indian Foreign Secretary for peace talks on Kashmir.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj last week said fighting the global scourge of terrorism is a central part of India's diplomatic engagements with Pakistan.

"Among the issues that dominate global concerns today is the threat of terrorism," Swaraj said while releasing a book, 'The Modi Doctrine: New Paradigms in India's Foreign Policy' here.

She said India is putting a lot of diplomatic energy on an early conclusion of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.

"Equally important, we have made counter-terrorism cooperation a key element in many of our bilateral interactions," she said.