FM says responsibility of creating enabling environment for dialogue with Pakistan rests with India

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said Pakistan will not shy away from dialogue if India expresses readiness for a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute.

The foreign minister said the responsibility rests with India to create an enabling environment for dialogue with Pakistan. He recalled that soon after assuming office, Prime Minister Imran Khan had offered to take two steps towards peace if India takes one, Radio Pakistan reported.

Qureshi also termed the re-enforcement of the ceasefire agreement between the two neighbors as a positive development.

The foreign minister's statement comes after Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Jave Bajwa said that it was time for India and Pakistan to bury the past and move forward. Addressing the first-ever Islamabad Security Dialogue, the COAS said that it was important to understand that without the resolution of the Kashmir dispute through peaceful means, 'the process of sub-continental rapprochement will always remain susceptible to derailment due to politically motivated bellicosity'.

"Our neighbour will have to create a conducive environment, particularly in occupied Kashmir," the COAS added.