No backchannel talks between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, confirms sources

In a new development, high level sources confirmed to Times of India that there will infact be no backchannel conversation on Kashmir between India and Pakistan for the moment. The only conversation will be between the national security advisors Ajit Doval and Sartaj Aziz, foreign policy adviser to Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif. The first conversation is supposed to be taking place in the capital in the next few weeks, following which there could be more interactions. This comes days after Pakistan said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi have agreed in their meeting in Russia to address the issues of Kashmir, Siachen and Sir Creek through Track II diplomacy. [caption id=“attachment_2339288” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif. PTI[/caption] “The two sides also agreed to take up these issues under the back channel Track-II mechanism for better understanding of each other’s point of view,” the Dawn had quoted Aziz as saying. His remarks had come right after the furore back in Pakistan for not mentioning Kashmir in the joint statement issued after the meeting between Sharif and Modi in Ufa, Russia on Friday. He said the two sides believe in combating poverty, instead of fighting each other. However, another source familiar with developments had told TOI after Aziz’s statement that backchannel talks might not end up happening. “This is a government that believes only in front channel talks,” he added. With inputs from agencies