Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif ready to hold ‘meaningful dialogue' with India on ‘all outstanding issues'
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Islamabad is ready to participate in a 'meaningful dialogue' with India to address all outstanding issue, news agency PTI said on Wednesday.
The Pakistan PM's comments comes nearly two months after India launched Operation Sindoor to destroy Pakistani terror bases in the neighbouring country, in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26.
During a conversation with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday over Telephone, Sharif expressed his desire to hold a dialogue with India over issues that crept up in the aftermath of the terror attack, as per the PTI report.
Since April 22, tensions between the two neighbours have escalated. While India has agreed to pause military attacks on Pakistan, diplomatic restrictions still hold between the two countries, with New Delhi keeping the crucial Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance among other restrictions.
'Pakistan is ready to engage in a meaningful dialogue with India on all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, water, trade and terrorism,' Shehbaz Sharif said during the conversation, according to the PTI report quoting Radio Pakistan.
Earlier in May Sharif had, while in Iran and in Azerbaijan, expressed his willingness to engage in peace talks with India in order to resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir, terrorism, water and trade.
However, India has repeatedly rejected Pakistan's advances to hold dialogue with it, saying that the only topics India is interested in are the the return of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the issue of terrorism.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also sent a clear message to Pakistan – India will not hold any peace talk with Pakistan, unless it involves solving the problem of terrorism.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also said that the Indus Water Treaty will remain in abeyance till the time Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support to cross-border terrorism 'just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: 'terror and talks cannot go together, terror and trade cannot go together, and water and blood cannot flow together'.'
India has also stopped all forms of trade with Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, and closed its airspace for all Pakistani aircraft.
Following Operation Sindoor, Pakistan launched military attacks on India, forcing New Delhi to launch more retaliatory attacks on the neighbour. Four days of intense armed exchange followed, after which India and Pakistan agreed to stop the military actions on May 10.
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