DELHI: India called off high-level talks with Pakistan within 24 hours of their announcement. On Thursday New Delhi had accepted Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s offer of talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries. India's Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistan counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi were to meet at the United Nation in New York next week. However, the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi said on Friday that since the announcement, two “deeply disturbing” developments had taken place that led India to call off the meeting.
Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, pointed to the killings of Indian security personnel by “Pakistan entities” in Jammu and Kashmir and the recent release of series of 20 postage stamps by Pakistan “glorifying terrorists.”
He said: “It’s obvious that behind Pakistan’s proposal for talks to make a fresh beginning the evil agenda of Pakistan stands exposed and true face of the new Prime Minister of Pakistan has been revealed to world in his first few months in the office.”
Doubts began to be raised yesterday about the talks when the brutal killing of a Border Security Force (BSF) came to light at the international border.
Modi’s government further came under pressure after the opposition Congress party questioned its Pakistan policy.
“On September 19, 2018, USA clearly stated that Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba are main contributors to terror, and are linked to Al-Qaeda,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. “The government has betrayed each and every part of Jammu and Kashmir. The mutilations are an unspeakable horror,” he added.
India cancels talks with Pakistan
India cancels talks with Pakistan
- India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson pointed to the killings of Indian security personnel by “Pakistan entities” in Jammu and Kashmir and the recent release of series of 20 postage stamps by Pakistan “glorifying terrorists”
- Modi government under pressure from opposition to respond to killing of policemen by militants
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Changes to US security strategy ‘largely consistent’ with Russia’s vision: Kremlin
- Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones”
MOSCOW: Russia has welcomed changes in the US National Security Strategy, saying the adjustments that marked a radical departure from Washington’s previous policy were “largely consistent” with Moscow’s vision.
Washington’s new National Security Strategy, published early Friday, took aim at allies in Europe, calling it over-regulated, lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.
The document stated that the United States would also prevent other powers from dominating but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.”
Commenting on the new US strategy, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones.”
“The adjustments we’re seeing, I would say, are largely consistent with our vision,” Peskov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday.
“President Trump is currently strong in terms of domestic political positions. And this gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept to suit his vision,” Peskov added.
The publication of the updated security strategy came as officials from Kyiv held talks in Florida with Trump’s envoys on the US-drafted plan to end the near four-year war in Ukraine.
Three days of talks produced no apparent breakthrough.
President Volodymyr Zelensky committed to further negotiations toward “real peace,” as Russia in the early hours of Saturday launched another series of drone and missile strikes at Ukraine.
Zelensky is due to meet with European leaders — French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — in London on Monday to take stock of the negotiations.
