Chumoukedima, Nagaland, February 22 (HBTV): The government of India and the Naga armed group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) are likely to resume formal talks soon on the protracted Naga political issue.   

Officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs including the advisor for the North East, AK Mishra, met with NSCN-IM leaders including its general secretary and chief negotiator Thuingaleng Muivah, in Nagaland‘s Dimapur on Friday.   

“Two other senior leaders of the NSCN-IM attended the meeting. Both sides decided to hold formal talks at the earliest to take forward the long-pending Naga political issue,” an official said on condition of anonymity.   

Mishra, who arrived in Nagaland on Thursday, held a meeting with the Working Committee of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), an alliance of seven Naga groups that signed an “Agreed Position” with the central government in 2017, in Dimapur. The last formal meeting between the government and the NSCN-IM took place in October 2022.   

During the 46th Raising Day celebration of the NSCN-IM at its headquarters Hebron, the group’s vice chairman Tongmeth Wangnao recalled that the Indian government had officially recognized the rights of the Naga people on two occasions. He stated that the first recognition was of the uniqueness of the Naga people’s history, on July 11, 2002, during a meeting in Amsterdam, followed by the Framework Agreement signed on August 3, 2015, in New Delhi, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi playing a key role in the agreement.   

The NSCN-IM has been engaged in negotiations with the government since the 1997 ceasefire agreement and the 2015 Framework Agreement. Parallel negotiations with the NNPGs began in 2017, leading to the signing of the Agreed Position in November that year. Despite ongoing discussions, the NSCN-IM remains firm on its demand for a separate flag and constitution, as well as the integration of Naga-inhabited areas in the northeast region of India.