Pak made no suggestions to India on NY talks, says Krishna

New York, Sept 30 (PTI) External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna Thursday categorically denied receiving any
"suggestions" from Pakistan to make Indo-Pak talks more
"meaningful".
"We have not received any of those suggestions,"
Krishna said, referring to Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah
Mahmood Qureshi's remark that Islamabad had sent New Delhi
suggestions through diplomatic channels to make the talks more
meaningful.
Krishna and Qureshi were both in New York to attend
the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly and
a bilateral meeting was widely anticipated.
An Indo-Pak bilateral, which was being explored for
this week, did not materialised and both sides have faulted
each other for it.
Earlier this week, Qureshi told the media that "the
talks can take place immediately if a positive response is
received (from India)."
Qureshi insisted that Pakistan wanted all issues to be
discussed during talks, which he had pointed out differs from
India's approach of "graduated" talks that would focus on
Mumbai attacks and terrorism and then explore other issues
like Kashmir.
Pointing to disputes over Kashmir, Siachen and water,
Qureshi had said, "How can Pakistan talk to India without
these subjects being on the table."
"Well apart from Kashmir there are a lot of issues
where they could be agreement," Krishna said, adding "India
still holds the view that a graduated approach to the Indo-Pak
talks is more rational, more reasonable and I think we should
attempt that."
Krishna further noted that during the July talks in
Islamabad both countries had been able to find common ground
on "a number of other humanitarian issues... But there are
core issues where they have been very strong positions, which
have been held but that doesn't prevent normalisation of
relations between the two countries."
Despite the spat over Kashmir here in New York, both
ministers have said that they look forward to the next round
of talks in New Delhi for which dates have to be set through
diplomatic channels.
During their time in New York, Qureshi and Krishna
repeatedly described their meeting in Islamabad as productive.
PTI