HAGUE
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Monday that he wanted third party mediation between Pakistan and India to resolve their decades-old dispute over Kashmir.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the nuclear summit at The Hague, Nawaz said that India hesitated every time Pakistan had approached it for talks on Kashmir. “The matter cannot be resolved until a third force like the United States is involved in the process,” he added.
The prime minister also said that the granting of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India had been postponed because of a lack of consensus. Nawaz said that he had directed his team to talk to all stakeholders and develop consensus on the matter. “We also deferred this due to elections in India because we did not want to favour single political party in India,” he added.
In 2012, Pakistan had committed itself to giving the MFN status to India after a strong persuasive note by the World Bank, and having done all the necessary spadework in this regard, opted to miss its own deadline of December 31, owing to domestic opposition and reciprocal response from New Delhi.
On Afghanistan, the prime minister said that peace in the neighbouring country was the need of Pakistan and also welcomed the US move of halting drone strikes in Pakistani territory.
NAWAZ MEETS KERRY:
Earlier, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met US Secretary of State John Kerry and both sides reaffirmed their desire to continue the strategic dialogue, covering a wide range of areas.
Kerry said his country has great confidence in Pakistan’s nuclear security and will continue to work with Pakistan in fighting terrorism. In brief remarks to the press, he also assured cooperation to Pakistan to help meet its energy needs.
Kerry said the two countries were “deeply engaged” and said the two sides will focus on the issue of terrorism, counter terrorism, global energy besides Afghanistan and the bilateral Pakistan-United States relations.
Prime Minister Sharif said there were a lot of challenges for his government that came into power nine months back, however measures were afoot to address these.
He also mentioned his meeting with US President Barack Obama a few months ago in Washington DC and said the dialogue with the US will continue.
John Kerry mentioned his meeting in Washington with the Adviser to Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz recently and said he was looking forward to his meeting with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar soon.
The prime minister is accompanied by Special Assistant Syed Tariq Fatemi and Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry.