PM Imran renews offer for dialogue with India

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have sent letters of felicitation to their Indian counterparts on assuming their offices, stressing Pakistan’s desire for a peaceful neighbourhood.The letters were sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar earlier this week in line with established diplomatic norms and inter-state practice, sources told APP on Friday.According to details, the letters underscored Pakistan’s vision of working for durable peace and stability in South Asia with peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.Both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister in their separate letters emphasised the need to work with India on the basis of mutual respect and trust, to address challenges faced by people of both the countries, including poverty and under-development.The need to advance the goals of regional peace, progress and prosperity through collective endeavours was underscored, the sources added.Modi assumed premiership for the second term on May 30.On Thursday, the Indian foreign ministry had clarified no meeting was scheduled between PM Khan and Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. “To the best of my knowledge, no meeting is being arranged between Prime Minister Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of the SCO meet,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said. Talks about dialogue between Pakistan and India started gaining momentum after Khan had earlier congratulated his Indian counterpart on his party’s electoral victory in the parliamentary elections.Khan had expressed his desire for the two countries to work together for the betterment of their peoples. In a tweet earlier, he had congratulated Modi, saying he looked forward to working for “peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia”.Modi had responded in a Twitter post, thanking PM Khan for his “good wishes” and saying he, too, wanted peace in the region.India and Pakistan became members of the SCO in 2017, joining the forum founded in 2001 by Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

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