‘Ready but not desperate’ for talks with India: Dar
DPM says Pakistan wants dialogue on a range of issues including water, whereas India wanted to focus only on terrorism
islamabad
Pakistan is “ready but not desperate” for talks with arch-rival India, its foreign minister said on Wednesday, underlining the lack of a thaw in relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours following their worst military conflict in decades.
Both sides used fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery last month in four days of clashes, their worst fighting in decades, before a ceasefire the US said it brokered on May 10. India has denied any third party role in the ceasefire.
“Whenever they ask for a dialogue, at whatever level, we are ready but we are not desperate,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told a news conference in Islamabad.
The spark for the fighting was an April 22 attack in Indian Kashmir that killed 26 people, most of them tourists. New Delhi blamed the incident on “terrorists” backed by Pakistan, a charge denied by Islamabad.
Dar said Pakistan wanted a comprehensive dialogue on a range of issues including water, whereas India wanted to focus only on terrorism. “That’s not on. Nobody else is more serious than us. It takes two to tango,” he said, referring to comments by Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar that the talks should only cover the issue of terrorism.
