Pakistan again offers dialogue to India

ISLAMABAD   -   Pakistan Thursday once again offered dialogue to India and urged New Delhi to stop bloodshed in held Kashmir.

Speaking at the Islamabad Security Dialogue here, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that durable peace, security and development in the region hinge on peaceful resolution of the long-standing Jammu and Kashmir dispute. “Our government had, at the outset in 2018, offered that if India took one step forward for peace, Pakistan will take two. But, unfortunately, India chose to take several steps backwards. And the world saw the consequences,” he said.

Durable peace, security and development in the region hinges on peaceful resolution of the long-standing Jammu and Kashmir dispute, he added.

The FM said it was clear that India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019 in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the ensuing military siege and indiscriminate repression of Kashmiris, caused “incalculable damage” to the prospects of peace.

“India must stop violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in IIOJK, halt its illegal attempts to change the demographic structure in the occupied territory and implement the UN Security Council resolutions which guarantee the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices,” he added.

The FM said India must also rethink its policy of fomenting destabilization in Pakistan and embrace a progressive agenda that can benefit the entire region.

“Mutually agreed restraints on nuclear capabilities and conventional forces remain indispensable for strategic stability in South Asia. In essence, the onus is on India to create an enabling environment,” he said.

He said Pakistan’s vision of peace, development, and connectivity offers an entirely new paradigm. “Our outlook and trajectory are fundamentally transformed. The international community, particularly the Western world, need to update their perceptions and their outlooks. Enhanced trade, investment, energy security, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges are our higher priorities,” he said.

The FM said Pakistan’s primary interest was in sustaining a peaceful, stable and prosperous world order that takes everyone on board and leaves no one behind.

He said India must stop violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in IIOJK, halt its illegal attempts to change the demographic structure in the occupied territory and implement the UN Security Council resolutions.

The Foreign Minister said India must also rethink its policy of fomenting destabilization in Pakistan and embrace a progressive agenda that can benefit the entire region.

Foreign Minister Qureshi said Pakistani leadership’s vision of Naya (new) Pakistan was focused around economic security for the well-being and welfare of the people.

The FM said Pakistan is advocating co-existence and win-win cooperation instead of partake in geo-political competition and rivalries.

He said Pakistan had decided not to be part of any regional conflict and has consciously chosen to be only a partner for peace and development.

Qureshi said Pakistan was calling for inclusive and cooperative approaches based on enhanced economic partnerships. He said Pakistan was emerging as the gateway to landlocked Central Asia and Afghanistan.

He said the transformational China-Pakistan Economic Corridor – a hallmark of Pakistan’s all-weather strategic cooperative partnership with China – was the quintessential connectivity project.

The FM said: “We envision Pakistan emerging as the gateway to landlocked Central Asia and Afghanistan. We will endeavor to reap peace dividends in Afghanistan in the form of enhanced connectivity with Central Asia.”

About peace in Afghanistan, the FM said Pakistan had steadfastly supported an Afghan-led an Afghan-owned peace process as there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.

“It is imperative for the Afghan parties to seize this historic opportunity and work together to secure an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement. Pakistan will continue to support this noble goal as we go forward,” the FM said.

In principle, he said, Pakistan was also ready to consider East-West connectivity to help address challenges of poverty and underdevelopment in South Asia.

The FM said during the past few years, the world witnessed renewed competition, accentuating rivalries, and even a drift towards confrontation. Globalization and multilateralism were severely undermined by unilateralism and sharpening geo-political tensions.

The FM said the misplaced notion of ‘net security provider’ is being applied in our own region, in disregard to the legitimate security interests of others. The cardinal principle of ‘equal and undiminished security for all states’ is being undermined, he added.

Terrorism in Pakistan, he said, had been actively sponsored, aided and abetted from across our borders.  “The introduction of destabilizing weapons systems in our region, coupled with offensive doctrines and a growing propensity for military mis-adventurism, is accentuating challenges to strategic stability,” he mentioned.