New Delhi: In a significant twist to the ongoing freeze in Indo-Pak relations, Prime Minister Narindra Modi Friday sounded softer saying, “We will continue to make efforts to build peaceful, friendly and cooperative ties with Pakistan.”
However the prime minister has regretted Pakistan’s assertion of its engagement with Kashmiri separatists. “We were disappointed that Pakistan sought to make a spectacle of talks and went ahead with talks with secessionist elements,” the prime minister said during his interaction with scribes in Japan he is visiting during his first foreign trip.
In an interaction with the Japanese media, he said “India desires peaceful, friendly and cooperative ties with Pakistan…. India has no hesitation to discuss any outstanding issue with Pakistan within the bilateral framework that has been established under the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration”.
The prime minister is currently on his first foreign trip to Japan. Japanese media quoted him reiterating his stand about minus-Hurriyat talks with Pakistan. Modi expressed his disappointment at the cancellation of secretary-level talks with Pakistan and flayed the neighboring country for engaging secessionists in Kashmir.
Talking to scribes, PM said, He, however, conveyed India’s stand towards establishing peace with Pakistan through dialogue, and added, “We will continue to make efforts to build peaceful, friendly and cooperative ties with Pakistan.”
He was responding when asked about the cancellation of Foreign Secretary-level talks which were scheduled for August 25 in Islamabad after Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit had met Kashmiri separatist leaders here prior to that.
“We .. Were disappointed that Pakistan sought to make a spectacle of these efforts and went ahead with talks with secessionist elements from Jammu and Kashmir in New Delhi just prior to the meeting of the Foreign Secretaries,” Modi said.
At the same time, he added, “We will continue to make efforts to build peaceful, friendly and cooperative ties with Pakistan.”
Acting tough, the PM Narendra Modi-led govt had recently called off India and Pakistan Foreign Secretary-level talks and conveyed a blunt message that it was interfering in India’s internal affairs by holding talks with Kashmiri separatists, which was “unacceptable”.
He recalled that he had a “very good meeting” with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in May, 2014, when he attended the swearing-in ceremony of his government here.
“We together decided that the Foreign Secretaries should meet and explore how to take relations forward,” he noted.
Modi was asked to elaborate on BJP’s election manifesto
which said its government will “revise and update” the nuclear doctrine and “make it relevant to challenges of current times”.
In his reply, the Prime Minister said “I can tell you that currently, we are not taking any initiative for a review of our nuclear doctrine.”
He noted that India’s nuclear doctrine was adopted during the previous NDA government and has in general governed India’s nuclear weapons posture since then.
“While every government naturally takes into account the latest assessment of strategic scenarios and makes adjustments as necessary, there is a tradition of national consensus and continuity on such issues,” he added.
Asked about the possibility of India signing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or CTBT sometime in the future, Modi said “there is no contradiction in our mind between being a nuclear-weapon state and contributing actively to global nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.”
He underlined that India remains strongly committed to universal, non-discriminatory, global nuclear disarmament and its track record of non-proliferation is impeccable.
“We will continue to contribute to the strengthening of the global non-proliferation efforts. India’s membership of the four international export control regimes will be conducive to this,” he said.
With regard to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), Modi said “we are committed to maintaining a unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing.
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