New Delhi: India said there should be a conducive atmosphere free of terror and hostility for talks with Pakistan and it wants normal relations with that country. In a weekly media briefing, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "We have always wanted normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan. But, there should be a conducive atmosphere that does not have terror, hostility, or violence. That remains our position".
This comes a few days after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during a recent interview with a Dubai-based television, said that the nation has learned its lesson after three wars with India and reiterated that now it wants peace with its neighbour. "My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Modi is that let's sit at a table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning issue like Kashmir," Sharif said.
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"India is our neighbouring country, we are neighbours. Let's be very blunt, even if we are not neighbours by choice we are there forever and it is up to us to live peacefully and progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources. That is up to us," Shehbaz Sharif said in the interview. Pakistan's Prime Minister said, "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 with India, provided we can resolve our genuine problems." Later, clarifying PM Shehbaz Sharif's interview with Al Arabiya, Pakistan's PMO had said the PM has consistently maintained that Pakistan & India must resolve their bilateral issues, especially the core issue of Jammu & Kashmir, through dialogue and peaceful means
