Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday offered his Indian counterpart talks over all outstanding issues, including disputed Kashmir, negotiations that he believes could be facilitated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“My message to the Indian leadership and [Indian] Prime Minister Narendra Modi is let’s sit down at the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning issues, like Kashmir,” Sharif said in an interview with al-Arabiya news channel, telecast by Pakistan’s state run TV.
He said he had taken up the issue with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in a recent visit to the UAE.
Photo: Reuters
“He’s a brother of Pakistan. He also has good relations with India. He can play a very important role to bring the two countries on the talking table,” Sharif said.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The two nuclear powers have fought three wars since independence from British rule in 1947.
Two of the wars were over Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region, which both nations claim.
Each controls half of it.
The two nations got closer to a full-scale war in 2019 when India launched a strike inside Pakistan to target what New Delhi said was a militant training facility.
Tensions rose higher when India unilaterally revoked the autonomous status of its part of Kashmir later in 2019, which Sharif said resulted in “flagrant” human rights violations.
Ever since, official talks between the two countries have been suspended, although there were some backdoor diplomacy attempts to resume negotiations — one brokered by the UAE in 2021.
Sharif said that the wars between the two countries brought nothing except misery, poverty and unemployment.
“We want to alleviate poverty, achieve prosperity and provide education, health facilities and employment to our people, and not waste our resources on bombs and ammunition, that’s the message I want to give to PM Modi,” he said.
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) is set to issue sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Krathon as projections showed that the tropical storm could strengthen into a typhoon as it approaches Taiwan proper, the CWA said yesterday. The sea warning is scheduled to take effect this morning and the land warning this evening, it said. The storm formed yesterday morning and in the evening reached a point 620 nautical miles (1,148km) southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, moving west-southwest at 4 kph as it strengthened, the CWA said. Its radius measured between 220km and 250km, it added. Krathon is projected
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