Pakistan wants talks, India denies military escalation

Pakistan on Tuesday called for talks with India to defuse tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, as New Delhi denied claims it had moved troops into offensive positions on the border.

The comments from the foreign ministers of the south Asian rivals were the latest in a series of tit-for-tat responses since the Mumbai attacks that India blamed on Pakistan-based militants, triggering a deterioration in relations. “Dialogue is in the interest of both the countries — we should sit across the table,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a policy statement broadcast live on local television.

“India should de-activate its forward air bases and relocate its ground forces to peacetime positions,” Qureshi said. “This will send a positive signal and reduce tensions in the region.”

Qureshi described developments in the past two days — such as a hotline conversation between high-level military officials from the two countries — as “positive”.

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But his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee quickly fired back, saying New Delhi had carried out no military movements near the already heavily militarised common border beyond a “normal winter exercise”.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“First there should be escalation from the Indian side, then the question of de-escalation will come. We have not escalated anything,” Mukherjee told the Press Trust of India news agency.

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