New Delhi: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan wants a US-style presidential debate with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to iron out “differences between the two nations”.
Khan is angling for a “televised debate”, he told Russia Today, on the eve of his Moscow visit Wednesday. This is the first visit by a Pakistan premier to Russia in two decades.
“I would love to debate with Narendra Modi on TV,” Khan said, adding it would help the billion-plus people in the subcontinent.
India’s foreign ministry has not responded to a request for comment by news agency Reuters.
India has maintained over the years that no dialogue is possible with Pakistan as long as terror festers on its soil.
It has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan take down terror groups and round up perpetrators. Some of them are on the list of the United Nations.
Pakistan’s claims that cross-border terrorism was enforced by “non-state actors” have not gone down well with India. India maintains that these groups have a free hand in Pakistan.
Relations between the two neighbours have been extremely strained after the 2016 Pathankot attack in which 7 security officers were killed, and then the infamous Pulwama attack which left 40 soldiers dead.
India retaliated firmly with surgical air strikes on terror groups across the Line of Control. Terror camps in Balakot also came under heavy airforce fire after Pulwama.
Battling rising inflation, Pakistan has made recent overtures to India to resume trade. Imran Khan said in the interview: “India became a hostile country so trade with them became minimal.”
India maintains any substantial ties with Pakistan is impossible unless it shows evidence of cracking down on terror organisations.
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