Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday proposed to India «serious and sincere» talks on their bilateral disputes, including the one revolving around the Kashmir region, although he demanded that the decision to revoke autonomy in the area, adopted in 2019, be withdrawn beforehand.
«My message to the Indian leadership and (Indian) Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to allow us to sit at the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve burning issues like Kashmir,» he said in an interview with Al Arabiya television network.
Sharif has denounced human rights violations in Indian-controlled Kashmir and said that New Delhi «usurped any semblance of autonomy» with its August 2019 decision. He has also denounced persecution of minorities in the neighboring country. «This must end so that the message circulates around the world that India is open to talks,» he explained.
«It is up to us to live in peace and make progress or fight and waste time and resources. We have had three wars with India and they have only brought more misery, poverty and unemployment to the people. We have learned our lesson and we want to live in peace, as long as we can solve our real problems,» argued the Pakistani prime minister.
He stressed that the Pakistani authorities «want to reduce poverty, achieve prosperity and provide educational and health facilities to the people, not waste resources on bombs and ammunition». «That is the message I want to convey to Modi,» he said, as reported by the Pakistani television channel Geo TV.
In this line, he recalled that both countries have nuclear weapons. «God forbid, but if a war breaks out, who will live to tell what happened?» he asked, while affirming that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could play a mediation role and work to bring positions closer to the start of a process of talks.
Following the interview, the Pakistani prime minister’s office has published a statement on its Twitter account in which his spokesman said that Sharif «has consistently maintained that Pakistan and India should resolve their bilateral issues, especially Jammu and Kashmir, through dialogue and peaceful means.»
«However, the prime minister has repeatedly said that talks can only take place once India has reversed its illegal action of August 5, 2019. If India does not reverse this step, negotiations are not possible,» he explained, before stressing that «the solution to the Kashmir dispute must be in line with UN resolutions and the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.»
Pakistan and India have been disputing the region of historic Kashmir since 1947 and have clashed over it in two of the three wars they have fought since independence from the United Kingdom. In 1999 there was a brief but intense military confrontation between the two nuclear powers and a fragile truce has been in place since 2003.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
