Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has said that India and Pakistan should resolve all outstanding issues, including the Kashmir issue, through “dialogue, talks and negotiations”.
In an interview reported in an Indian news outfit, Mukherjee said, “The proper person to address (this question) would be the foreign minister of India. What I can say is the stated policy.”
“We believe we can select our friends but cannot select our neighbours. During my tenures as Indian foreign minister twice, I used to articulate that I cannot live in perpetual tension with my neighbour,” he stated.
Two major agreements have been signed to resolve the question of Jammu and Kashmir. One is the Simla Agreement 1972 and other is the Lahore Declaration resolved during the premiership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said Mukherjee.
“These are the two institutional treaties which can provide the mechanism through which outstanding issues could be resolved. We believe only through dialogue, talks, and negotiations not only can this issue, but all outstanding issues can be resolved,” he stressed.
Referring to the request of Malala Yousafzai, joint winner of Nobel Peace Prize 2014 with Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, he said he would leave it to the leaders of India and Pakistan to decide whether they should attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Norway.
Comments are closed.