Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 30

India today put the ball back in Pakistan’s court on the resumption of a bilateral dialogue and said it had so far received no request from Pakistan for such a meeting on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia (HOA) Conference.“Pakistan has not requested for any bilateral meeting so far,” Gopal Baglay, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, said. In the build-up to the HOA Conference at Amritsar on December 3-4, Pakistan has been signalling that it is ready to resume bilateral talks. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan’s de facto foreign minister, will be in Amritsar on Sunday, while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will lead the Indian delegation as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is unwell.Aziz’s visit is significant since it is the first high-level visit from Pakistan ever since the January Pathankot airbase attack. Sushma Swaraj travelled to Islamabad to attend the HOA Conference in December last year. Her meeting with Aziz and Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif marked resumption of a formal dialogue.Pathankot, Uri and now Nagrota terror attacks have made domestic opinion very anti-Pakistan, making it difficult for the government to engage in dialogue with a nation “using terror as an instrument of state policy”.