Minister of Finance and Defence Arun Jaitley on Thursday hinted that talks between India and Pakistan were not going to be revived any time soon even as he blamed the neighbouring country for stalling the dialogue.

“The government of India has taken significant steps to ease the situation in the past … But each one of these has been responded by a Pathankot, or Uri or even the mutilation of two of our soldiers. Therefore, that environment which must exist for a talk has been successfully prevented by Pakistan,” Jaitley said addressing a press conference marking three years of the Modi government.

He said India had taken several initiatives to ease tensions with Pakistan, such as inviting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to India during the swearing-in ceremony or Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending a function in his family at Lahore.

“The fact that at the swearing-in of the government when the SAARC neighbours were invited, Pakistan Prime Minister was invited, the fact that our Prime Minister dropped in at Lahore at a social function in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s family, were all steps intended to ease the tension,” Jaitley said.

On the situation in Kashmir, Jaitley said it was much better than what was being made out.

“The situation in Kashmir is much better than the impression we get. In the past few weeks, our armed forces (Indian Army, BSF and CRPF) are dominating the LoC (Line of Control). The security forces have been able to build up lot of pressure on the terrorists,” he added.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Army Chief Bipin Rawat convened a high-level meeting in Srinagar with the entire Army top brass, including all seven commanders.

Incidents of firing along the LoC were also reported from both sides.

On the issue of minimal foreign direct investments (FDI) into the defence sector, Jaitley said the FDI policy is only an enabling factor, while other avenues are also being explored, such as the policy on Strategic Partnerships (SP) under the Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) 2016.

“The FDI changes merely open the door. They are enabling. They themselves do not ensure the immediate entry of participants. And there is only one defence procurer in the country, and that is why the strategic partner policy now has been brought in because it is going to supplement the FDI policy on whether the SP will come through the FDI route or through a tech tie-up,” he added.

The government approved the ‘Strategic Partnership’ policy last month.