Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 23 (IANS) Ahead of foreign secretary-level talks, India Tuesday made it clear that there was no space for third country mediation with Pakistan.
“There is no place for a third country in our talks… only bilateral,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony told reporters outside Parliament House.

He was reacting to a statement in Beijing by visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi that China has a “blank cheque” to mediate between the two countries.

“It is for the Indians to decide if they would be comfortable to have China talking as a third party to bridge the gap,” Qureshi said in a speech at a China Institute of International Studies.

The foreign secretary-level talks Thursday will be the first official-level meeting after India suspended the composite dialogue in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai carnage that New Delhi has blamed on Pakistani terrorists.

India has said that the talks will focus on countering terror but that other issues of mutual concern could also be discussed.

The seven-member Pakistani delegation, led by Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, will arrive 4.30 p.m. Wednesday by a Pakistan International Airlines flight. The same evening, Bashir will meet with a delegation of the moderate faction of Kashmir’s Hurriyat conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.

The formal talks will be held Thursday at Hyderabad House, after which Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is likely to host a working luncheon for the visitors. The Pakistani foreign secretary will call on Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.

A joint press conference is unlikely with the external affairs ministry expected to release a press release on Thursday.

The Pakistan High Commission may, however, organize a press conference by its foreign secretary, who will leave for Islamabad, via Lahore, Friday.