ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that India is an important neighbour and that Pakistan wants to have normal relations with New Delhi on the basis of mutual respect and sovereign equality.
“Pakistan wants good relations with all countries of the region,” the prime minister was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan while talking to Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit who called on him in Islamabad on Wednesday.
The prime minister said that it is important that two countries resolve all their outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir in order to have viable peace in the region.
During the meeting, the Pakistani envoy to India briefed the prime minister on the status of relations between Pakistan and India.
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Earlier addressing a function in Islamabad on Tuesday, the prime minister’s adviser on foreign affairs and national security Sartaj Aziz said that Pakistan will continue to follow a policy of restraint but never compromise on its national interests.
The adviser said that Pakistan will not abandon its political, diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmir cause at any cost.
Sartaj Aziz said that Pakistan wants to build cooperative and good-neighborly relations with India on the basis of mutual respect and sovereign equality. However, he regretted, that India has not yet reciprocated Pakistan’s sentiments.
