Pakistani foreign minister notes ‘positive development’ in ties with India

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday night there was progress in Pakistan’s relationship with India, as signalled by a recent cease-fire agreement on the disputed Kashmir border and a letter written by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistani PM Imran Khan on the occasion of Pakistan’s Republic Day on March 23.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars and had tense ties since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Relations worsened in 2019 and both sent combat planes into each other’s territory.
In a sign of rapprochement, India and Pakistan this month held the first meeting in three years of a commission on water rights from the Indus River. 
Last month, India and Pakistan announced a rare agreement to stop firing on the bitterly-contested border in Kashmir.
The nuclear-armed neighbors signed a cease-fire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kashmir region in 2003, but the truce has frayed in recent years, and there have been mounting casualties among Kashmiri villagers living close to the de facto border.
Speaking about the developments, Qureshi said in an interview that he did not have a bilateral meeting scheduled with his Indian counterpart, and neither had they met on the sidelines of ninth Heart of Asia summit, aimed at promoting peace and security in Afghanistan, which the Pakistani foreign minister is attending in Dushanbe.
“I did not have a meeting with the Indian foreign minister … I did not get a request from his side, neither was a meeting scheduled so a meeting didn’t happen,” the foreign minister said in an interview.
“But I will admit that one positive development has happened and that is the cease-fire on the line of control … that will really benefit the Kashmiris,” Qureshi added. “Along with this, the prime minister of India has written a letter to the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. In that letter, he has congratulated Pakistan, the Pakistani people on its national day. In response to that, the prime minister [Khan] has written him [Modi] a letter … in which he has thanked him ... and in which he has said that Pakistan has always desired that it live with all its neighbors with peace, and that includes India.”
The foreign minister said Pakistan had never shied away from dialogue with India, but India needed to create an “enabling environment” to move forward with Pakistan.
Qureshi also said that unlike in the past, the India foreign minister did not criticize Pakistan during his speech at this year’s Heart of Asia conference. 
Tuesday’s summit was one in a series of high-profile meetings on Afghanistan as Washington reviews its plans for the peace process. Violence has risen while progress stalls at peace negotiations in Doha.
Earlier in the month, major regional players met with Afghan political and government leaders as well as Taliban negotiators in Moscow. Washington is preparing for a conference it has asked the United Nations to hold soon in Turkey, though the date has not been announced.