Talks with India is Pakistan’s strength, says Basit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is willing to hold ‘unconditional’ dialogue with India, its High Commissioner Abdul Basit said on Wednesday.

The envoy made it clear that “holding talks would be Pakistan’s strength, not its weakness”.

Pakistan throws diplomatic ball in India's court

“After [we] fought wars [with India], we want resolution of issues through dialogue. If we’re ready for dialogue, it is our strength, not weakness,” the high commissioner said in an interview with BBC Urdu’s Facebook Live.

Basit said: “Pakistan during the last many decades had worked out several frameworks to hold talks with India on all issues. The basic thing is that dialogue should be comprehensive, including all issues.



On Indian External Minister Sushma Swaraj’s statement that dialogue and terrorism cannot go side by side, the high commissioner said Pakistan could also put up similar conditions such as the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and the withdrawal of troops from Siachen Glacier.

However, the high commissioner said problems could only be resolved at the dialogue table. Basit pointed out  due to confrontation, both Pakistan and India were not making progress.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2016.