ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reiterated Pakistan’s desire to improve relations with India on Sunday but said it was only possible through the resolution of the longstanding dispute between the two nations on the Kashmir territory. 

India and Pakistan, who have fought two out of three wars over the disputed Himalayan territory since 1947, each administer parts of Kashmir but claim it in full. Ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbors hit their lowest in years in May after an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April triggered a brief military confrontation between the two. 

Over 70 people were killed in both countries as India and Pakistan traded missiles, artillery fire and bombed each other with fighter jets and drones before Washington brokered a ceasefire on May 10. 

Speaking to Pakistani expatriates at an event in London, Sharif said Pakistan desired peaceful relations with India, adding that it was for both nations to decide whether they wanted to live in peace or conflict. 

“But for that to happen, the resolution of the Kashmir dispute is a basic pillar,” Sharif said. “If anyone thinks that without the resolution of the Kashmir dispute our bilateral relations can be restored, he is living in a fool’s paradise,” he added. 

He praised the country’s military leadership for defending Pakistan successfully during the days-long military confrontation between the two neighbors in May.

Speaking on rising tensions in the Middle East, the Pakistani prime minister also condemned Israel’s war on Gaza. Sharif lamented that it had killed over 65,000 Palestinians since October 2023, noting that the world had neither seen nor heard of such atrocities before. 

“I believe the time has come that we need peace in this region,” he said. “And the Islamic world must step forward and talk about peace.”

The fragile ceasefire between India and Pakistan, brokered by US President Donald Trump on May 10, continues to persist, but tensions remain high. India has vowed to hold in abeyance a 1960 water-sharing treaty that decides the use of the Indus River system between India and Pakistan. 

However, Pakistan has warned that it will not allow India to divert or restrict the flow of its water. Islamabad has said it would treat India’s attempts to do so as an “act of war.”