Pakistan willing to resume talks with India after polls: Minister
Dubai: Pakistan is willing to resume peace talks with New Delhi after the 2019 general election in India with whoever takes power, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has said.
Speaking to the Gulf News in an interview on Sunday, Chaudhry termed the current time unfit for talks due to the “ongoing turmoil” in Indian politics.
“We have delayed our efforts to hold talks with India because we do not expect any big decision from the present Indian leadership. It is useless to talk to them (India) now unless there is some stability.
“We will move forward once the new government is formed after the elections,” he said.
Asked which Indian leader will suit Pakistan more when it comes to peace talks – Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi — Chaudhry said that it does not matter for Islamabad.
“We will respect any Indian leader and the party elected by the Indian people. And we would like to move forward to hold a dialogue with whosoever comes into power in India.”
Bilateral ties remain frosty with Islamabad not having taken any action against terrorists and terror groups operating out of Pakistan’s soil.
The Minister said Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan invited India on multiple occasions to hold talks but New Delhi never responded positively.
Khan had earlier said that India gave a “political colour” to his gesture of opening the Kartarpur border to link Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur in India with the Kartarpur gurdwara where Guru Nanak spent his last years.