Modi calls for talks with Pakistan in letter to PM Khan

ISLAMABAD: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for dialogue with Pakistan in a letter to its newly elected leader and Pakistan also saw talks with its old rival as the "only way forward", Pakistan's foreign minister said on Monday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan offered an olive branch to India after his election victory last month, proposing talks to resolve a long-standing dispute over the occupied Kashmir region. The two leaders spoke by telephone late last month.

"The Indian prime minister has sent a letter in which he congratulated Imran Khan and ... he has sent a message to open talks," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters in the capital, Islamabad.

An Indian foreign ministry official confirmed Modi wrote to Khan on Saturday and "expressed India's commitment to build good neighbourly relations between India and Pakistan and pursue meaningful and constructive engagement for the benefit of the people of the region".

Qureshi repeated a call for a resumption of talks, which have made little progress in recent years.

"We need a continued and uninterrupted dialogue. This is our only way forward," he said.

But Pakistani security policy is largely determined by its powerful military, not by civilian governments.

Qureshi said he would soon visit Afghanistan bearing a message of friendship and "new beginnings".