Tag: India Pakistan relations

Pakistan military drums up India threat

- by India Writes Network

Pakistan’s military has always touted India as the primary threat to the country. This projection of the India threat keeps the powerful military establishment in business. It’s therefore not surprising to find Pakistan’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee reiterating what has been the guiding credo of Rawalpindi HQ. “India is the only external threat for Pakistan,” General Rashad Mahmood, who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee, told Senate Defence Committee members on August 27 about the perceived threat.

Pakistan’s military informed the committee that India had purchased USD 100 billion worth of weapons of which 80 percent were Pakistan-specific and it is expected that India would be buying weapons worth another USD 100 billion.

The statement coming soon after the cancellation of the talks between National Security Advisers of both countries is set to sour the atmpsherics between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

While there has been no official reaction so far from the Indian side, such remarks don’t create a conducive atmosphere for any sustained engagement between the two countries.

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India, Pakistan cancel NSA talks amid slanging match: It’s K word again

- by India Writes Network

It’s a depressingly predictable piece of theatre, and once again it’s the K word that has wrecked the planned talks between national security advisers of the perennially prickly neighbours, India and Pakistan. The much- touted talks between the NSAs of the two estranged neighbours were cancelled after an intense slanging match following Islamabad inviting the Kashmiri separatist leaders to meet Sartaz Aziz in New Delhi. The Modi government drew the red line when it cancelled the foreign secretary-level talks a year ago on grounds of the Pakistani envoy inviting separatist leaders for a meeting. This time round, New Delhi has reinforced the red line with an added conviction.

India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj had issued an ultimatum to Pakistan to respond by the midnight of August 23 on continuing talks without Pakistan’s NSA meeting the separatists. By the late hours of August 22, Pakistan responded saying it cannot attend the meet as India was imposing pre- conditions and called off the meeting.

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