NEW DELHI: Pakistan on late Saturday evening called off NSA-level talks citing conditions put forward by India were unacceptable.
Sartaj Aziz, adviser to Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif on security and foreign affairs, was to hold talks with national security adviser Ajit Doval on Monday.
Pakistan's decision to cancel the talks comes after India hardened its position that the talks would be only on terrorism and Kashmir would not be in the agenda.
Calling Pakistan's decision to cancel the talks as "unfortunate", India said it had not set any condition for the talks.
Foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted: "Pakistan's decision is unfortunate. India did not set any preconditions. We only reiterated that Pakistan respect the spirit of the Simla & Ufa Agreements to which it was already committed."
According to reports, the Pakistani establishment believed that Aziz was not welcomed in India after foreign minister Sushma Swaraj's news conference where she set a midnight deadline for Pakistan to decide whether it wants to stick to its demand that Kashmir should be in the agenda for the talks.
Swaraj had declared that "there will be no talks," when asked what would happen if Pakistan did not accept the position outlined by her on separatists and Kashmir.
Prospects for the talks between India and Pakistan already looked bleak earlier on Saturday as Pakistan insisted it will take up the "core" issue of Kashmir, while India said that Islamabad must abide by the agenda agreed to at Ufa and only discuss terrorism.
"Keeping in mind the spirit of the Simla Agreement, don't make Hurriyat a third party to the talks, and keeping the spirit of Ufa, don't expand the subject of talks beyond terrorism," she said.
On Saturday, Aziz said at a news conference in Islamabad that he is willing to hold talks with Doval, but Kashmir would be on the table and he would also speak with the Kashmiri separatists.
A few hours later, Swaraj said at a news conference that Aziz was welcome to meet his counterpart Ajit Doval in India, but the agenda has to remain within what was agreed to at Russia's Ufa on July 10 between both their prime ministers.
She said the mandate for the NSA talks was to discuss terrorism-related issues only and Aziz should stick to it, and there was no space for the Hurriyat in talks as per the Simla Agreement inked between both the countries earlier.
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