- NEW DELHI — India on Thursday reiterated that any India-Pakistan engagement
has to be bilateral, at the same time making it clear once again that the Indus
Waters Treaty (IWT) will remain in abeyance until Pakistan "credibly and
irrevocably abjures" its support for cross-border terrorism.
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- "Any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral.
At the same time, I would like to remind you that talks and terror don't go
together. On terrorism itself, as I had said earlier, we are open to discussing
the handing over to India of noted terrorists whose list was given to Pakistan
some years ago," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir
Jaiswal stated during a weekly media briefing in New Delhi.
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- "I would also like to underline that any bilateral
discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be on the vacation of
illegally-occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. On the question of the Indus
Waters Treaty, I am again repeating myself, it will remain in abeyance until
Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border
terrorism. As our Prime Minister has said, water and blood cannot flow together,
trade and terror also cannot go together" he added.
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- India's strong response came a few hours after Pakistan
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif proposed Saudi Arabia as a neutral venue for
talks with India, stating that the United States could take lead as a mediator
between the two countries.
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- Talking to journalists in Islamabad, Sharif said that if
there are going to be talks between India and Pakistan, they will be at the
National Security Advisors (NSA) level, adding that the agenda of the talks
would be focused on Kashmir, water, terrorism, and trade.
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