In any Indo-Pak talks, Kashmir will be off the table

New Delhi, Aug 18: The scrapping of Article 370 has closed a major chapter, where talks on Kashmir is concerned. In case of any future talks, India would not raise the Kashmir issue with Pakistan as the matter is now internal.

In case there are talks with Pakistan, the focus would only be around cross border terrorism and infiltrations. India says that with Kashmir off the table, it would look to normalise relations with Pakistan in a bid to ensure stability in the region.

Pakistan has been trying to drum up support on international platforms on the Kashmir. It even went to the UNSC last week, but failed to get any favourable response, despite backing from China.

Officials say that India has always maintained that talks and terror cannot go together. Pakistan has derailed talks on several occasions. Talks were derailed in the aftermath of the Kargil war, Parliament attack and the Mumbai 26/11 strikes. The other instances when talks were derailed were in the aftermath of the Pathankot and Uri attacks.

India continued to maintain that the constitutional changes that were made in Jammu and Kashmir were internal to India. The UN security council members rejected Pakistan's demand for a formal meeting and also did not adopt an informal statement.

While Pakistani ambassador, Maleeha Lodhi tried to claim that it was a win for Pakistan, India said that both China and Pakistan tried to pass off national opinions as UNSC deliberations.

China, during the meeting had suggested that an informal outcome be announced. However, with no support from any of the members, except the UK, China later on said that the members had expressed serious concerns about the situation in J&K.

This prompted Syed Akbaruddin, India's permanent representative to declare that Pakistan and China had passed of national sentiments as the will of the international community. He went on to say that the national position was and remains that matters related to Article 370 of the Indian Constitution are entirely an internal matter of India. India remains committed to ensure that the situation in J&K remains calm and peaceful.

While Pakistan claimed that the issue had been internationalised, the fact of the matter is that the closed door meeting of the UNSC concluded without any formal votes, statement or resolution.

Neither India nor Pakistan were present during the deliberations and no formal notes or minutes were taken.