NEW DELHI, India: The Indian defence minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday asked Pakistan to make a “conscious” choice that whether it wants to talk to the Indian government or those who want to break India.
In his address at the India Economic Summit in New Delhi on Wednesday, Jaitley said that India was “ready to speak to Pakistan” and is “willing to normalise the relationship” but “then there are a few red lines”.
“We create the environment, we fix up a dialogue at the level of foreign secretaries, our foreign secretary is to visit Pakistan (and) literally a few hours before that they invite the separatists for a dialogue to their high commission (in New Delhi).
“So I think a new red line has to be drawn in Pakistan to reconsider this question that who they want to speak to? Do they want to speak to the government of India or they want to speak to those who want to break India,” Jaitley was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India as published on the Times of India website.
“So unless Pakistan makes the conscious choice, a dialogue with Pakistan will not be possible,” the Indian defence minister added.
The Indian government on August 18 called off the foreign secretary level talks with Pakistan after the Pakistani high commissioner to India Abdul Basit met separatist leaders from Kashmir in New Delhi.
The foreign secretary level talks between the two countries were scheduled to be held in Islamabad on August 25 this year.
