New Delhi: Reacting to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with “cautious optimism”, PM's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has stressed the need for meaningful and serious dialogue between the two countries.
Pakistan is cautiously optimistic about the resumption of dialogue with India, which will have to tackle issues such as the Siachen and Sir Creek boundary disputes on which progress was made in the past, the neighbouring country's national security adviser Sartaj Aziz has said.
Aziz, however, rejected India's contention that Pakistan has not done enough to prosecute those responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks and ruled out action against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, blamed by New Delhi for masterminding the assault on India's financial hub in 2008.
"I am cautiously optimistic now that visit has been resumed, obviously there will be discussion on the agenda, scope of the dialogue, modalities and the timeline. Once the dialogue process starts it gathers its own momentum," Aziz has said.
He described PM Modi's phone call as "a good start in sort of breaking the ice but whether it will lead to actual resumption of meaningful dialogue that remains to be seen". Much will depend on the talks between the foreign secretaries, he said in an interview with the Rising Kashmir newspaper.
Aziz, who is Pakistan's de facto foreign minister since Sharif has not appointed anyone to the post since he came to power in 2013, said Pakistan expects India to make a "serious resumption of dialogue".
Aziz said it was the result of persuasion by US and other countries that India was forced to reinitiate the dialogue process and “may be some internal dynamics of Kashmir played some role as well”.
“US and other countries had realised the fact that India has not done good by unilaterally calling off the foreign secretary-level talks in August last year and there was urge from the world community that both countries should move forward on dialogue process,” he said.
Aziz acknowledged that Pakistan had hardened its stand on several issues, including Kashmir, after the suspension of talks because the peace process "has not moved". He added: "There is tension on borders…You can't just ignore it."
He said Pakistan could no longer say that it wouldn't insist on the UN resolutions of Kashmir. He added that former president Pervez Musharraf's four-point formula for resolving the Kashmir issue too may no longer be relevant.
