NEW YORK: India is not willing to enter into bilateral dialogue to resolve longstanding Kashmir dispute, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
He held a comprehensive meeting on Kashmir issue with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York.
He informed the UN Chief that India wasn’t willing for bilateral negotiations over Kashmir issue. “Pakistan is sincere for the bilateral talks on Kashmir however India is backtracking,” said the minister.
Later talking to media after meeting with the UN chief. Qureshi said he also brought under discussion other issues, including the Ehsaas Programme, in a meeting with UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande.
The minister said he had thanked the security council’s president for highlighting the Kashmir issue in the council’s meeting as the lockdown slapped on the Himalayan territory neared five months.
“It’s the second time in five months that the security council discussed the Kashmir issue,” he said. “I apprised the UN secretary-general of the Pakistan efforts in de-escalating the tension simmering in the Middle East. I briefed him about the progress of my recent visits to KSA and Iran,” he said.
After landing in New York, he told the media, “Pakistan is doing what it can to de-escalate the situation between Iran and the US.”
In the backdrop of Middle East tensions following the US killing of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and subsequent retaliation by Iran, Prime Minister Imran Khan deputed the foreign minister to visit Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States and meet with respective foreign ministers.
After meeting with UN officials, the foreign minister will head to Washington where he will meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor Robert O’ Brian and other senior US administration officials, Geo reported.
He will also have meetings in the Capitol Hill, besides engagements with the media, policy think tanks and the Pakistani diaspora. Qureshi, in his talks with the US leadership, will focus on Pakistan’s diplomatic outreach, which has been undertaken on the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, in the wake of the recent tensions in the Middle East.
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