Pakistan advocates result oriented dialogue with India to resolve all outstanding issues: Foreign Office
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has consistently advocated constructive engagement and result oriented dialogue with India to resolve all outstanding issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the Foreign Office said on Thursday.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, however, accused India of vitiating the environment of peace between the two countries.
At her weekly media briefing, Baloch was asked about Pakistan’s position on ties with India in the context of a recent interview with a UAE media outlet by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who expressed a desire for talks. However, the Prime Minister’s Office later said talks are not possible without India revoking its 2019 actions on Kashmir.
Baloch said that the Prime Minister’s remarks clearly articulated his perspective.
“Pakistan’s position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute…is very clear. Pakistan has always desired cooperative relations with all its neighbours, including India,” she said.
She said Pakistan has consistently advocated constructive engagement and result oriented dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues, including the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir.
“However, India’s unabated hostility and retrogressive actions have vitiated the environment and impeded the prospects for peace and cooperation,” she alleged.
She said that Pakistan “believes the onus remains on India to take the necessary steps to create an enabling environment conducive for meaningful and result oriented dialogue.” She said Pakistan would appreciate if the international community, especially friendly countries, would convince India to take such steps.
India on Thursday said it always wanted normal neighbourly ties with Pakistan but there should be an atmosphere free from terror and violence for such a relationship.
India has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of must militant and hostility for such an engagement.
The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed militant training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama militant attack.
The relations further deteriorated after India in August 2019 announced withdrawing special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the state into two union territories.–(PTI)
