- Only way to resolve all outstanding issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is through implementation of UNSC resolutions: Dr. Faisal
- Says FM Qureshi to brief on interaction with Swaraj soon
ISLAMABAD, May 23: Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated on Thursday his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi over his party’s landslide victory in elections, vowing to work with him for peace and prosperity.
“I congratulate Prime Minister Modi on the electoral victory of BJP and allies. Look forward to working with him for peace, progress and prosperity in South Asia,” Imran tweeted after official confirmation that Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was returning to power for the next five years.
“Pakistan has consistently maintained that the only way to resolve all outstanding issues, including the Jammu & Kashmir dispute is through implementation of UNSC resolutions. Dialogue is hence essential,” Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal told reporters at the weekly briefing earlier in the day.
“We remain committed to the same, irrespective of whoever forms the new Government in India,” he added while responding to a question about Pakistan’s expectations from the new government in India.
Just a day before the formal announcement of final results, foreign ministers of Pakistan and India held an unexpected ‘informal’ meeting at the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) gathering in Kyrgyzstan.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he conveyed his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj Pakistan’s desire to resolve all issues through dialogue.
This was the first interaction between the two countries at the foreign ministers level since PM Imran formed the government and importantly after the military standoff in February this year.
Some observers believe that as elections were over and Modi returning to power, New Delhi may revisit its pre-election hard line stance towards Islamabad.
When asked to comment on a brief interaction between FM Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek, he said that FM Qureshi himself will give a statement on it soon.
Last month, PM Imran had said that the two countries had a better chance of rapprochement under the rightwing Modi administration than the opposition Congress.-Agencies
