India has categorically told the United States that any dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad has to be held at a “bilateral” level, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said. In an interview to Al Jazeera aired on Monday, when asked if Islamabad wanted involvement of a third party, Dar said: “Well, we don’t mind, but India has been categorically saying that it is bilateral, so we don't mind bilateral…when the ceasefire offer came through Secretary Rubio (US Secretary of State Marco Rubio) to me on 10th of May, around 8.17 am. I was told that there would very soon be a dialogue between you (Pakistan) and India at an independent place.” “When we met on July 25 for a bilateral meeting, myself with Secretary Rubio in Washington, I asked what happened to the dialogue.. He said India says that it is a bilateral issue…So we are not begging for anything…any country, we want dialogue. We are a peace-loving country. We believe that is the way forward. But obviously it takes two to tango. So unless India wishes to have dialogue, we don't wish to force them,” Dar said. Dar’s comments are in line with India’s traditional position since the Simla agreement of 1972, when the two sides decided that all issues between them are to be dealt with at a bilateral level. This was reiterated in 1999, during the Lahore declaration, when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelled to Lahore by bus and met then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. This also flies in the face of the US administration, led by President Donald Trump, wading into bilateral issues. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May, and that his posturing on trade deals had forced both countries to stop the hostilities. This was contradicted by India, including in a phone call between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 17 this year. Modi had told Trump that at no point was there any discussion, at any level, on an India-US trade deal, or any proposal for mediation by the US between India and Pakistan. “Prime Minister Modi clearly conveyed to President Trump that at no point during this entire sequence of events was there any discussion, at any level, on an India-US trade deal, or any proposal for a mediation by the US between India and Pakistan. The discussion to cease military action took place directly between India and Pakistan through the existing channels of communication between the two armed forces, and it was initiated at Pakistan’s request. Prime Minister Modi firmly stated that India does not and will never accept mediation. There is complete political consensus in India on this matter,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had said then, giving a readout of the 35-minute phone conversation between the two leaders. But that has not stopped Trump and senior members of his administration, including Rubio, from claiming that the hostilities were paused due to US intervention. In a statement on May 10, Rubio had said India and Pakistan “have agreed… to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”. In August, Dar had said that “Pakistan did not ask anyone to arrange talks with India”. “Pakistan is ready for comprehensive talks with India, including on the Kashmir issue,” he had said. After the Pahalgam terror attack in April, India had launched Operation Sindoor against terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan in May, following which both countries launched retaliatory strikes at each other for three days before suspension of hostilities.
