Sushma Swaraj squarely blames Pakistan for spoiling foreign secretary-level talks with India

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said here that Pakistan was to be squarely blamed for the August 25 foreign secretary-level talks being a non-starter, as that country's envoy to India had opted to talk to Hurriyat leaders four days before the proposed talks.

Swaraj's reply was in response to Pakistan's National Security and Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz's comment that foreign secretary-level talks between Pakistan and India can resume if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes the initiative.

Earlier today, rejecting the view that Pakistan has repeatedly violated the cease-fire arrangement on the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB), and adding that meeting with Kashmiri leaders is normal practice, Sartaj Aziz said that foreign secretary-level talks between Pakistan and India can resume if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes the initiative.

"The cancellation of FS talks was an overreaction according to us. Meeting with Hurriyat leaders is not a new thing. We have been talking to them for last 20 years," Aziz had concluded, while referring to Pakistan envoy to India Abdul Basit's meeting with Kashmiri 'separatist' leaders in New Delhi before the scheduled but subsequently suspended foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad.