'Environment Free of Terror, Hostility is Imperative': India on Pak PM's 'Ready to Hold Talks' Remark

After Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered to hold talks with India, the Minister of External Affairs on Thursday said that an environment free of terror and hostility is imperative for such a dialogue.

Reacting to Sharif’s comments, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “We have seen the reports. India’s position is consistent in that we want friendly relations with all the countries…But for this an environment free of terror & hostility is imperative…”

Sharif on Tuesday offered to hold talks with India to address all serious and outstanding issues as he said that “war is not an option” for both countries as they fight poverty and unemployment.

“We are prepared to talk with everyone, even with our neighbour, provided that the neighbour is serious to talk serious matters on the table because war is no more an option,” the prime minister said, in an apparent reference to India.

Prime Minister Sharif’s comments came amid continued strain in ties between India and Pakistan on a number of issues including Islamabad’s continued support to cross-border terrorism.

India has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment that is free of terror and hostility for such an engagement.

Bilateral relations between Islamabad and New Delhi have been tense since August 2019 when India changed the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

On India’s ties with Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that it is not possible for India to have normal relations with the neighbouring country until the policy of cross-border terrorism is abrogated.

“We can’t allow terrorism to be normalised; we can not allow that to become the basis for getting us into discussions with Pakistan. To me it is a fairly common sense proposition,” he said in June.

(With PTI inputs)