“The government of India has taken significant steps to ease the situation in the past. But each one of these has been responded by a Pathankot, or Uri or even the mutilation of two of our soldiers. Therefore, that environment which must exist for a talk has been successfully prevented by Pakistan,” Jaitley said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had landed in Lahore to meet Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family at a wedding reception. The meeting was considered a step to ease tensions between the countries as Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Pakistan after more than a decade. But soon after, a series of attacks on camps of Indian armed forces derailed possibilities of dialogue. India blames Pakistan for patronizing terrorists in some of its areas but Pakistan has always refuted such claims.
“The fact that at the swearing-in of the government when the SAARC neighbors were invited, the Pakistan Prime Minister was invited, the fact that our Prime Minister dropped in at Lahore at a social function in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family, were all steps intended to ease the tension,” Jaitley said.
The armies of India and Pakistan have been involved in heavy firing along the Line of Control (the de-facto border) over the last few months. Both the countries have summoned each other’s envoys several times to stop violence and ease tension at border. On Thursday, the two countries blamed each other for initiating unprovoked firing at many areas at Line of Control.
