India should create enabling environment for dialogue: Qureshi

FM says Pakistan will not shy away from dailogue if India reviews policy; expresses readiness for peaceful solution

ISLAMABAD:

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi laid on Friday the responsibility to create an enabling environment for dialogue with Pakistan squarely on India.

In a statement issued, the foreign minister stated that, “Pakistan will not shy away from dialogue if India reviews its policy and expresses readiness for peaceful solution of all issues including [the] Kashmir dispute.”

The top diplomat also recalled that soon after Prime Minister Imran Khan took office, he offered to take two steps forward for peace with the neighbouring country if it [India] took one.

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Qureshi further said that the re-enforcement of ceasefire agreement after talks between the director generals of military operations of both the countries was a positive development.

On Thursday, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa spoke at the first-ever Islamabad Security Dialogue, talking about a wide range of internal and external issues.

During his address, the army chief said that stable Indo-Pak relations were a key to unlock the untapped potential of South and Central Asia by ensuring connectivity between East and West Asia.

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“This potential, however, has forever remained hostage to disputes and issues between two nuclear neighbours.

Kashmir dispute is obviously at the head of this problem,” the COAS said, adding that, “It is important to understand that without the resolution of Kashmir dispute through peaceful means, the process of sub-continental rapprochement will always remain susceptible to derailment due to politically motivated bellicosity.”

However, Gen Bajwa divulged that the military leadership feels it is time to bury the past and move forward.

“But for resumption of the peace process or meaningful dialogue, our neighbour will have to create a conducive environment, particularly in Indian Occupied Kashmir,” the army chief maintained.