NEW DELHI, Oct 12: Making it clear that India and Pakistan were not at a stage where they could resume dialogue, Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on Saturday that recent incidents on the LoC were not conducive to normalisation of ties.

“I must make it very clear that we have not reached a stage where we have done something like ‘so-called resumed talks’. We used to have a composite dialogue and that composite dialogue got suspended and then we began to move towards a process to resume that dialogue subsequently,” he said.

“While the two prime ministers [Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif] met in New York [last month], we have not reached a stage where we have indicated any dates, timeline or perspective on the resumed dialogue.... But whether and when the political level dialogue will take place and when, that is yet not clear,” he told reporters while returning with Prime Minister Singh after a visit to Indonesia.

He was responding to questions on whether recent incidents on the Line of Control had affected the dialogue process.

“But [as far as] the incidents at the LoC and border are concerned, they are upsetting. The army is dealing with it and the defence minister is dealing with it, but I can’t say it is conducive to a faster movement in normalisation,” he said.

The incidents on the LoC were ‘unwelcome’ and distracted attention from efforts made by both sides to move towards normal relations, he said.

Mr Khurshid said there were “many routine things” continuing between India and Pakistan and these “will continue.

By arrangement with the Times of India