No talks with Pak during Rajnath visit: MEA

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 29

India today categorically stated that Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who will be in Pakistan on August 4, will not be having any bilateral talks with his Pakistani counterpart. 

The Ministry of External Affairs, which had yesterday confirmed the Home Minister’s visit to Pakistan, has pointedly stated that the minister’s visit is to attend a “multilateral event” and should be looked at from that perspective. MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted, “Let me categorically state that @Home Minister of India is going for SAARC event. There will be no bilateral meetings with Pakistan.”

However, a few media reports today indicated that the minister was likely to meet Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and have bilateral talks with his Pakistani counterpart during his visit.

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Singh is travelling to Pakistan on August 4 to attend a SAARC ministerial meeting. Any meeting with his Pakistani counterpart will raise a lot of uncomfortable questions for the government here since Pakistan has recently brought the agenda of Kashmir back on the centre table. 

The India-Pakistan relations have seen a sharp downturn over the last few weeks as the situation in Kashmir got more sensitive. Sharif’s statement that “Kashmir will one day become a part of Pakistan” saw an angry External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj hit out at Pakistan and Sharif that his dream “will not be realised even at the end of eternity”. Singh will be accompanied by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and several other senior officers of the Home Ministry.