According to a news source, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif stated Thursday that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad was a “good opening” to improve relations between the neighbouring nations.
The first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in the past nine years, S Jaishankar flew to Islamabad on Tuesday for a nearly 24-hour journey to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) session. The visit coincided with ongoing tensions between the two countries.
Nawaz Sharif, the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N) and a three-time prime minister, told a gathering of Indian journalists that both sides should now engage and proceed.
Nawaz Sharif, who praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unexpected visit to Lahore in December 2015, expressed his displeasure with the “long-pause” in the two nations’ relations and hoped that both parties would take a constructive stance going forward.
“We can’t change our neighbours, neither can Pakistan nor can India. We should live like good neighbours,” the 74 year-old leader said.
“We have spent 70 years in this way (fighting) and we should not let this go on for the next 70 years… Both sides should sit down and discuss how to go forward,” Nawaz Sharif told reporters after S Jaishankar’s visit.
Nawaz Sharif further attributed the current communication breakdown between the two nations on remarks made by former Prime Minister Imran Khan against Prime Minister Modi.
“Imran Khan used words that destroyed the relationship – as leaders of the two countries and neighbours, we should not even think, let alone utter such words,” Nawaz Shari said, referring to a post by Imran Khan in September 2018, supposedly targeting Modi.
Along with highlighting the significance of resuming trade and cricket between the two nations as a way to defrost the chilly relationship, Sharif has also expressed his desire to be active in bridging the gap between them.
Trade between the two countries has been suspended since 2019 due to heavy duties being imposed by the Indian government on imports from Pakistan after the 2019 Pulwama attack.
