NEW DELHI : Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit today justified his meeting with separatist Kashmiri leaders saying they were legitimate stakeholders in the peace process, and called for moving forward to normalise relations between the two countries.
Mr Basit pointed out that Kashmir had been accepted as a bilateral issue by both India and Pakistan under the Simla agreement.
“We understand that India Pakistan relationship is complex but
all feel that the time has come to move forward,”the Pakistan High Commissioner said replying to questions in a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club. “We attack enormous importance to peaceful relations with India,” he said two days after India called off the Foreign Secretary-level talks in protest against the Pakistan High Commission going ahead with meeting with the Kashmiri leaders. Meeting with the Kashmir leaders was part of the larger process of resolving all issues with India through dialogue and peaceful means, and this practice was not something new, he said. Mr Basit said he very much appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on the Independence Day in which he called for SAARC countries working together to face the common challenges.
While terming the cancellation of the Foreign Secretary talks as a set back, he still expressed the hope that the two countries would sit across the table , saying,”diplomacy is the art of the possible.”
(AGENCIES)
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