New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) India on Thursday reiterated that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral, at the same time making it clear once again that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) will remain in abeyance until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably abjures” its support for cross-border terrorism.

“Any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral. At the same time, I would like to remind you that talks and terror don’t go together. On terrorism itself, as I had said earlier, we are open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists whose list was given to Pakistan some years ago,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated during a weekly media briefing in New Delhi.

“I would also like to underline that any bilateral discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be on the vacation of illegally-occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. On the question of the Indus Waters Treaty, I am again repeating myself, it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. As our Prime Minister has said, water and blood cannot flow together, trade and terror also cannot go together” he added.

India’s strong response came a few hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif proposed Saudi Arabia as a neutral venue for talks with India, stating that the United States could take lead as a mediator between the two countries.

Talking to journalists in Islamabad, Sharif said that if there are going to be talks between India and Pakistan, they will be at the National Security Advisors (NSA) level, adding that the agenda of the talks would be focused on Kashmir, water, terrorism, and trade.

Shehbaz also said that the tensions between India and Pakistan are de-escalating in phases since the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) on both sides started engaging with each other.

“If talks were held between the two arch rivals, the National Security Advisor will lead Pakistan’s side in the process. Saudi Arabia can be a neutral venue with the US leading mediations. But India has not agreed to any neutral venue for talks till now,” he said.

“The agenda of the talks would be Kashmir, water, trade, and terrorism. These will be the key points during Pakistan-India talks,” Sharif added.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated India’s firm stance against terrorism, saying there would be no talks or trade with Islamabad unless it relinquishes its illegal occupation of Kashmir.

“If there is to be any talk, it will be on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). If Pakistan continues to export terrorists, it will be left begging for every penny. It will not get a single drop of Indian water,” he said while addressing a massive public rally in Rajasthan’s Bikaner.

PM Modi also made it clear that “playing with the blood of Indians will cost Pakistan dearly”.

–IANS

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