US 'disappointed' that NSA talks between India, Pakistan called off

Washington: The US has said it was “disappointed” that the proposed talks between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan has been called off. [caption id=“attachment_2403388” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI image[/caption] “We are disappointed the talks will not happen this weekend and encourage India and Pakistan to resume formal dialogue soon,” state department spokesperson John Kirby told PTI on Saturday. The spokesperson, however, said the “constructive” interaction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Ufa, Russia, was encouraging. “We were encouraged by the constructive interaction between the leaders of India and Pakistan earlier this year at Ufa, particularly the announcement of dialogue between the countries’ National Security Advisors,” Kirby said. Pakistan on Saturday night called off the NSA-level talks proposed for August 23-24, after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj virtually gave an ultimatum to Islamabad to give a commitment that it would not go ahead with meeting separatists. Swaraj was reacting to Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz’s remarks that he was willing to come to India for talks without any pre-conditions. India was also upset over Pakistan including Kashmir as part of the agenda for the NSA talks that was mainly scheduled to discuss terror. The first-ever NSA-level talks was agreed upon in July in Ufa during a meeting between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan. PTI