National security advisors of India and Pakistan held a “secret” meeting in Thailand where the tone and tenor of India’s NSA AjitDoval was “friendly and positive”, a senior Pakistani official said on Monday.
The Pakistan’s national security division official, on the condition of anonymity, said that the meeting between Pakistan’s NSA, retired lieutenant general Nasser Khan Janjua and Doval took place on December 27 in Thailand, The Dawn newspaper reported.
“The meeting was good. Doval’s tone and tenor was friendly and positive,” the official disclosed. The official maintained that he was briefed about the Indo-Pak meeting.
He was told that the meeting was “useful.”
The report also quoted the official as saying that the interaction might help in restarting some sort of engagement at the diplomatic level as well. However, there was no word—officially or unofficially—from the Indian side.
The meeting, which appeared to be pre-decided, came two days after Indian death-row prisoner KulbhushanJadhav met with his family on December 25 in Islamabad.
The Jadhav-family meeting became latest flashpoint in already strained Indo-Pak relations with Pakistan terming its decision to allow Jadhav’s family to travel to Pakistan to meet him as humanitarian gesture and India accusing it of violating mutual understandings.
It was not the first meeting between the two NSAs in a third country.
In December 2015 also, the two NSAs, along with the two foreign secretaries, had met in Bangkok, which was not revealed from both the countries till after the meeting. PTI