Dialogue process only way to move forward for Pakistan and India: Masood Khan

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Pakistan’s former envoy to China Masood Khan has said India, while accepting ground realities, has shown seriousness towards the dialogue process with Pakistan.

“This is our moral victory as Pakistan always asked to resolve all outstanding issues through dialogue,” he said while talking to a private news channel.

He said that Pakistan had made several attempts recently to resume talks with India, which shows Pakistan’s stance on the importance of dialogue to resolve all issues between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Masood Khan added that continuity of dialogue process was the only way to move forward.

“Pakistan and India are now fully aware of the reality that disputes could only be resolved through dialogue which is a positive notion,” he said while expressing the hope that dialogue would bring positive results.

Masood Khan said foreign secretaries of both countries will meet next month to set the agenda. The former ambassador stressed the need of increased people-to-people contacts between both countries to create an atmosphere of trust.

Last week, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told parliament that war was not an option and dialogue is the way forward with Pakistan to fight the ‘shadow of terror’.

Swaraj had said Pakistan and India had decided to hold talks on terrorism when Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi met in Ufa, Russia, in July and then in Paris.