NEW DELHI, Aug 21:
As tensions along the LoC continued, India today remained non-committal on a possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York next month.
Asserting that for a dialogue to take place there needs to be a conducive atmosphere, spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said, “And certainly an environment in which terrorism or violence is perpetrated against India is not the right type of environment for this. As far as any specific meeting that you are talking about, I think I had mentioned it last time that the dates that were being indicated were in the last week of September … We look and examine every situation as it evolves.”
He also stressed that India expects Pakistan to abide by its publicly stated commitment not to allow its territory or territories under its control for violence or terrorism against India.
“For us this is a key priority and we will see how things evolve on that priority,” he added.
India and Pakistan have been accusing each other of ceasefire violations along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
Sharif has been maintaining that he looks forward to meeting Singh on the sidelines of UN General Assembly in New York next month. However, India which earlier had agreed on such a meeting “in principle”, has remained non-committal in the backdrop of a series of ceasefire violations.
On whether the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh will be placed in the current session of Parliament, he said the External Affairs Minister was in touch with various political parties on this.
“The intention is to try and see if we can achieve domestic consensus which will enable passage of this important legislation which we as India are committed to,” he said. (PTI)
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