Monitoring Desk: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran khan has welcomed any international mediation in reconciliation with India.
He also said that Pakistan hopes decrease of tension with India and Pakistan wants to spend resources on human development instead for buying arms.
In an exclusive interview with Russian State Run News Agency Sputnik, Prime Minister Imran Khan confirmed that there has not been much progress regarding Iran Pakistan Gas Pipeline because of the sanctions put on Iran by the United States.
Responding a question regarding the possibility of buying arms from Russia, Pakistan Prime Minister said:
First, we hope that our tension with India decreases, so we do not have to buy arms because we want to spend money on human development. But, yes, we are looking for arms from Russia, and I know our military is already in touch with the Russian military.
Talking about bilateral trade with Russian, Prime Minister Khan stated that Pakistani trade delegations will soon go to Russia.
“We will invite Russian trade delegations here, get them opportunities to invest in Pakistan. I do believe that there is a Russian steel company, which is looking to invest in our steel mill in Karachi. In fact it was made by Russia. The steel mill of Pakistan was made by the Russians a long time ago, I think in the 70s. So we hope that we will start expanding areas of cooperation, and we will explore areas of strength, where we would love them [Russia] to come and invest in Pakistan. We are opening up investment opportunities in Pakistan. We are opening up visa regimes in Pakistan so that people do not have to go through the long complex process of getting a visa, they can actually come and get a visa at the airport”, said PM Khan.
PM Khan stated that in past Pakistan’s orientation was more towards the West but now Pakistan is (was) looking to diversify, find new markets or different relationships with those countries, which Pakistan had very nominal relationships [with] before.
“The SCO countries provide us [with] these fresh outlets and developing our relationship with these countries. And that means, of course, India as well because at the moment our bilateral relationship with India is, probably, at its lowest point. And, yes, it will be an opportunity to speak to the Indian leadership during this SCO conference” stated PM Khan.
When asked by Sputnik for enhancing people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and India through initiatives similar to the Kartarpur corridor, Pakistani Prime Minister said that Kartarpur corridor for the Sikh community has been a great initiative from Pakistan.
“And we hope that, as I’ve said, now that the elections are over, India will respond positively to these initiatives, to further people-to-people contact. But, unfortunately, people-to-people contact only works when the governments also try to get closer. You can’t have a situation where the governments have animosity towards each other, and expect people to get closer. It does not happen. So the governments have to, the Indian government has to take this initiative. Unfortunately, as I’ve said, they do not do so before the elections. Now, I think, it is time for them to take the initiative, and so we can get back on the dialogue table. And, I repeat, the only difference, if we resolve that there will be peace in the subcontinent, that’s Kashmir. Unfortunately, Kashmir can only be resolved if the people of Kashmir are given the right of self-determination, which was guaranteed to them by the United Nations in 1945. And they would deprive of the right, and this use of force by the Indian government to subdue has backfired. The more force there has been used, the more the people of Kashmir have turned against the Indian government, the more radicalisation has come in the young people of Kashmir. And it is a future source of destabilization of the continent. That’s why it is very important to resolve the Kashmir issue”, maintained PM Khan.
