Nearly four days after Pakistan Primer Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged India to resume dialogue on pressing issues, especially Jammu and Kashmir, it has again echoed the same where a top Pakistani official asserted “that refusing to talk would have dangerous consequences for all”. “There should be some resonance of reciprocity from New Delhi as well,” Dawn quoted Pakistan’s US ambassador, Masood Khan as saying while addressing a meeting in Washington. “It takes two to tango. It can’t be a monologue. It needs to be a dialogue.”

Earlier, in a similar manner, Shehbaz said Pakistan was ready to hold talks with its neighbour on serious issues as wars were not an option anymore. “We are prepared to talk to them, provided that the neighbour is serious to talk on serious matters. War is no more an option,” he said in an apparent reference to India.

Later, the United States also backed Pakistan’s appeal. saying  “As we have long said, we support direct dialogue between India and Pakis­tan on issues of concern,” US State Depart­ment spokesman Matthew Miller said.

However, India, staunchly refused to resume talks, saying that Islamabad needs to create an environment for peace before the talks resume.

Sharif had made similar statements in January

Notably, this was not the first time when Pakistan urged India to resume bilateral talks. Earlier in January this year, PM Shehbaz, during an interview with a Dubai-based Television, said that the nation has learned its lesson after three wars with India and that it stressed that now it wants peace with its neighbour.

“My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Modi is that let’s sit down at the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning points like Kashmir. It is up to us to live peacefully and make progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources,” Sharif said.

“India is our neighbour country, we are neighbours. Let’s be very blunt, even if we are not neighbours by choice we are there forever and it is up to us to live peacefully and progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources. That is up to us,” Shehbaz Sharif said in the interview with Al Arabiya.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister said, “We have had three wars with India, and they have only brought more misery, poverty, and unemployment to the people… We have learnt our lesson, and we want to live in peace with India, provided we can resolve our genuine problems.”

India’s response

Asserting its staunch position, New Delhi had argued that it always aspires to secure normal relations with its neighbouring nation. However, it underscored that “good relations” with Islamabad would only be possible if it brought a conducive environment that does not support terrorism or violence.  

“We have said that we have always wanted normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan,” said External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, while addressing a weekly media briefing. “But there should be a conducive atmosphere which does not have terror, hostility or violence. That remains our position,” he added. 

Also Read; “We always wanted normal relations but…”: India’s staunch reply to Pakistan PM Sharif

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