ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Friday clarified there had been no change in the country’s policy on India and that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s remarks about re-engagement with New Delhi were “portrayed incorrectly.”
The clarification comes a day after media reported Bhutto-Zardari in an address at a think tank in Islamabad this week emphasized the importance of engaging with other countries, including the United States (US) and India.
In his address at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), the Pakistani foreign minister said with an economic integration between Pakistan and India, neither state would be in a position to take an extreme stance.
The Pakistani Foreign Office said late Friday the remarks by the foreign minister “were being interpreted out of context and portrayed incorrectly.”
“There is no change in Pakistan’s policy on India on which there is national consensus. Pakistan has always desired cooperative relations with all its neighbors, including India,” the statement said.
“We have consistently advocated constructive engagement and result-oriented dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues, including the core Jammu and Kashmir dispute. It is, however, India’s unabated hostility and retrogressive steps that have vitiated the environment and impeded the prospects of peace and cooperation.”
Pakistan downgraded diplomatic relations with India and also suspended trade ties after New Delhi revoked the special autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019, dividing the Indian-administered part of the region into two federally administered units.
“The Foreign Minister clearly articulated this perspective, referring to India’s illegal and unilateral actions in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) since 5 August 2019, describing them as an assault on the rights of the Kashmiri people, as well as rising Islamophobia in India, that created an environment unconducive for meaningful engagement,” the Pakistani Foreign Office said.
The remarks were better understood in the overall context of his key message of conflict resolution that he emphasized in his address at the event, it added.
“The onus, therefore, remains on India to take the necessary steps to create an enabling environment conducive for meaningful and result-oriented dialogue,” the Foreign Office added.
Kashmir has been divided between Pakistan and India since their independence from British rule in 1947, with both countries claiming the disputed Himalayan territory in its entirety.
The nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of their three wars over the region.
