No back-door diplomacy with India: Pak

There is no back-door diplomacy between Pakistan and India and contacts between the two countries were based on the desire of the two neighbours, Pakistan Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said.

According to Radio Pakistan, Aziz said in an interview: ‘There is no back-door or track-II diplomacy between Pakistan and India....’

Aziz said Islamabad enjoys good bilateral ties with the US, Britain, the European Union, the Middle East and other regions of the world and that Islamabad has been pursuing various connectivity projects in the South Asia region such as CASA-1000 and the Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline, The Statesman reported.

Aziz’s remarks come as relations between India and Pakistan have soured after the September 18 attack on an Army camp in Uri town of Kashmir Valley in which 19 security personnel were killed.

The relations further dipped after Indian security forces on September 29 carried out surgical strikes at terror ‘launch pads’ across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.