Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has categorically rejected the speculations of any secret talks taking place between Pakistan and India through back-door channels or third party including the United Arab Emirates.

The Foreign minister, in an interview with a Turkish media outlet TRT, rubbished all reports of UAE mediating talks between two nuclear states. He said that the gulf country has good relations with both South Asian states, but there were no such talks going on between them.

Qureshi said Pakistan never shied away from talks, however, India has been shying away from the dialogue.

He reiterated Pakistan is willing for talks but India will have to create a conducive environment vitiated by its unilateral August 5, 2019 action in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, depriving the Kashmiris of their fundamental rights.

Reports of UAE acting as a mediator between Pakistan and India started to emerge when the Gulf state's envoy to Washington, Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, told a media outlet that the UAE played a role “in bringing Kashmir escalation down and created a ceasefire, hopefully ultimately leading to restoring diplomats and getting the relationship back to a healthy level”.

When the foreign minister made a two-day official visit to UAE earlier this month, some media reports suggested that it was to hold secret talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar. According to the Times of India, the Indian foreign minister was also present in Dubai at the same time on the invitation of UAE's foreign miniter.

It is pertinent to mention that Qureshi and Jaishankar did not have a meeting during the Heart of Asia conference held in Dushanbe last month.