New Delhi: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has written another letter to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, seeking a “consistent policy” for achieving a peaceful neighbourhood, Pakistani diplomatic sources told ThePrint.
The letter comes a week before both leaders are set to visit to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to attend the summit meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on 13-14 June.
According to diplomatic sources, both Pakistani PM Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi wrote letters to their respective counterparts, seeking resumption of the Indo-Pak dialogue that has been stalled since 2017.
“The letters underscored Pakistan’s consistent policy of a peaceful neighbourhood and the vision of working for durable peace and stability in South Asia, with peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues, including the Jammu & Kashmir dispute,” a Pakistani source said.
Sources added that Khan’s letter emphasised the need to work together, on the basis of mutual respect and trust, to address challenges faced by people of both countries, including poverty and underdevelopment.
“The need to advance the goals of regional peace, progress and prosperity through collective endeavours was underscored,” a source said.
India has not responded to any of Pakistan’s letters yet.
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Second attempt
This is Islamabad’s second attempt to resume talks with New Delhi since Prime Minister Modi came back to power with a landslide victory.
Khan was among the first international leaders to congratulate Modi over the phone when he got re-elected last month.
Speculation is that both leaders could have a pull-aside meeting of sorts on the sidelines of the SCO meet. However, the spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Raveesh Kumar, told a media briefing Thursday that “to the best of his knowledge”, no formal meeting has been decided on “as yet”.
“Imran Khan’s letter to PM Modi calls for a comprehensive dialogue, including on Jammu and Kashmir, but does not mention the format, venue and time of the dialogue and does not mention any meeting at SCO,” stated another source.
Earlier this week, Pakistani foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood came on a “personal visit” to India, but sources said his visit was seen as an attempt by Khan’s government to thaw the ice before the leaders met. Mahmood was Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India until April this year.
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You fool me once, shame on you. You fool me twice, shame on me. You fool me 6 times? Every peace initiative has been followed by a terror attack…and this is no different. Nothing has changed in Pakistan. The military establishment and the generals owe their existence, lifestyle, perks and riches to the ‘India Threat’ and will never ever accept peace with India. Let’s not fall into this trap again.
Opportunity for another agreement perhaps. Let India propose and then share draft agreement with Pakistani establishment. Once draft is agreed, PMs can meet and sign it in front of domestic and international media.
It must be said to the credit of the Pakistani political class that all three major formations favour normalisation of relations with India. This has figured in their election manifestos as well. They cannot possibly be unmindful of the views of the military on this issue. So there does seem to be a receptivity across the border. It is for India to consider restoring primacy to SAARC as the natural forum for the subcontinent to become a more integrated and prosperous region. 2. Why should India and Pakistan not have an honest, productive conversation about the future of Afghanistan as well …
you are nut case who lives in la la land . pakistan is not an angel they are under financial constrain whic is forcing them to show to world they are peace dove.
Some people have partial understanding of geopolitics and strategic issues. They love didacticism and their comments are mostly preachy, for example, “honest, productive conversation”, as if what has been happening till now was dishonest, half-hearted and frivolous (chai-biskut meetings).
Are you Mani Shankar Aiyer?
Your comments are very wierd. Or are you actually a Pakistani?
he is mani shankar or not..not sure but surely influenced by leftist ideology and he lives in ivory tower of his own doesn’t even knows realpolitik only hollow idealism won’t lead any where but people like ashok are in habit of infusing some sort of ideology even in international politics .. my two cents is that as far as international politics goes shun ideology and follow realpolitik dont be peace dove nor be hyper nationalist jingoistic. stay away from idealism be realist thats the deal.
Only consistent policy is no talks till they stop terror proxies and hand over those guilty of Mumbai 2008 and Pulwama and Dawood, etc! It is quite simple, really! What part of this policy does Mr Khan not understand?