India-Pakistan Meeting on sidelines of UNGA has been cancelled. India called off talks between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi set on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, saying Islamabad’s “evil agenda” stood exposed.
In a strongly-worded statement, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the latest brutal killings of Indian security personnel and Pakistan’s decision to glorify terrorism showed that it won’t mend its ways.
India-Pakistan Meeting: Earlier Reports
India and Pakistan will hold a meeting between the two foreign ministers as the former has agreed to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s proposal for external affairs ministers meet. The meeting will be held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
- How India Won Bangladesh and Lost Kashmir in 1971: Kashmir Dispute
- 36,000 People Evacuated from Border, Are India and Pakistan Heading for a War?
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, while talking to the reporters, confirmed the request of the Pakistani side and said that a meeting between Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi will take place on the sidelines of the UNGA at a mutually convenient date and time.
This, however, does not indicate any shift in India’s policy towards Pakistan, the MEA spokesperson added. Kumar said the meeting is taking place on Pakistan’s request. He said the date for the meeting was being finalised by the permanent missions of the two nations in New York.
The first day of the high-level UNGA discussion will commence on September 25 and will last for nine working days.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan’s newly elected PM Imran Khan had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi intending a meeting between foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the last week of September.
“I wish to propose a meeting between Foreign Minister, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the External Affairs Minister, Ms Sushma Swaraj, before the informal meeting of the SAARC Foreign Ministers at the sidelines of the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York,” the Prime Minister wrote. “Pakistan remains ready to discuss terrorism”, the letter further reads.
