Pakistan not engaged in 'back-channel' diplomacy with India: Tehmina

Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua said Thursday that Pakistan is not engaged in any 'back-channel' diplomacy with India, saying that New Delhi has suspended the dialogue process on all outstanding issues after 2015 despite Islamabad's willingness to hold talks on all matters including on Kashmir dispute.
She stated this in an informal chat with beat reporters covering Foreign Affairs during a reception she hosted for them. The Foreign Secretary said that Pakistan is pursuing a policy of peaceful neighbourhood and firmly believes that political engagements with rest of the world should continue to achieve the objectives of the foreign policy.
She said that India is not in a mood of dialogue and every sincere move from Pakistan to initiate dialogue has been jeopardized by one way or the other. However, she stated that Pakistan is always ready to hold talks on all outstanding issues including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. She said that Pakistan has always released Indian fishermen on humanitarian grounds as goodwill gesture.
To a question, she said that after the Trump administration's new South Asia and Afghan Strategy, Pakistan and United States were engaged in dialogue at various level, adding that the contacts were helpful in understanding each other's perceptions on various issues. The Foreign Secretary also confirmed that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Qamar Javed Bajwa would visit Saudi Arabia on November 27, 2017. However, she did not reveal agenda of the visit.
She said that both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were contacts on various bilateral and regional issues, adding the upcoming visit of the Prime Minister and CoAS was part of that contacts.