Pak will engage with India on ‘basis of equality’; ball in New Delhi’s court: Pak FM Qureshi

Pakistan will hold talks with India on the “basis of equality” and in a “dignified manner”, and it is up to New Delhi whether to engage with Islamabad to resolve all outstanding issues, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said.

Qureshi, who was in the Kyrgyz capital to attend the 19thShanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, said this while confirmingexchange of plesantaries between Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and hisIndian counterpart Narendra Modi here on Friday on the sidelines of themultilateral meeting.

   

“Yes, the meeting did take place, there was a handshakeand exchange of pleasantries,” Qureshi told Geo News. 

“Pakistan has said what it had to,” Qureshi said.

“So India has to make this decision, we are neither inhaste, nor troubled. When India prepares itself, it would find us prepared, butwe will hold talks on the basis of equality, in a dignified manner.

“Neither we need to run after anyone, nor we need todemonstrate stubbornness. Pakistan’s approach is very realistic and wellthought-out,” Qureshi said when asked to comment on demand by some peoplethat Pakistan should not repeatedly invite India for talks.

He said India had to make a decision whether to holdbilateral talks with Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues, and thatPakistan sought the dialogue to be based on equality.”India has not come out of its electionmindset and the extreme position they had taken to influence their constituencyand to keep their vote bank intact. It is still confined in that,” Qureshisaid. 

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