Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan is willing to hold dialogue with India for resolution of bilateral issues if New Delhi revisits its August 5, 2019 decision when it unilaterally abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Qureshi, who is on a two-day official visit to Turkey, made this statement during an interview with a leading daily on April 28. “If India is willing to revisit some of the decisions that it took on August 5, 2019, Pakistan will be more than happy to engage, sit and talk and resolve all the outstanding issues,” he said.
“India’s unilateral actions of August 5, 2019 were against international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions,” he added.
Qureshi stressed the importance of dialogue as the way forward to resolve long-standing issues such as the ones over Kashmir, Siachen, Sir Creek, sharing of water and other matters.
When asked about the possibility of an armed conflict between the two nuclear-enabled neighbours, Qureshi said the option of war would not be beneficial for either side and would be suicidal for both the neighbours. “We cannot afford to go to war, you know, it will be mutually suicidal. And no sensible person will advocate a policy of that nature. So we need to sit and we need to talk,” he said.
Qureshi alleged that it was India which was skirting the dialogue process. He said, “It was India, not Pakistan, which ran away from talks and suspended the composite and comprehensive dialogue process in the past.”
Referring to the recent developments that have led to a ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) through engagements between the Director General of Military Operations from both sides, Qureshi said that it was a positive development.
Both India and Pakistan in recent times have expressed willingness to hold talks, but have put the onus of creating an enabling environment on each other.
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