New Delhi hopes that India and Pakistan can become "normal neighbors" one day, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday, amid recent tensions over the region of Kashmir
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th August, 2019) New Delhi hopes that India and Pakistan can become "normal neighbors" one day, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday, amid recent tensions over the region of Kashmir.The diplomat, who assumed the office after the latest general election, is currently paying his first official visit to Moscow. He is expected to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and discuss a wide range of issues, including the recent spike in Indian-Pakistani tensions.
"Of course, there are complicated political and historical issues, but we believe that the best way of dealing with it is actually for the two countries to find some way of coming to terms with each other ... Certainly, it would be my hope that they [India and Pakistan] would become normal neighbors one day. This has to be something which I would like to see happen," Jaishankar said at the Valdai discussion club's meeting in Moscow.
India and Pakistan have contended for the Kashmir region the southern part of which lies in India's Jammu and Kashmir state since the end of British rule in 1947. Despite a ceasefire reached in 2003 after several armed conflicts, instability in the region continued, leading to the emergence of various extremist groups.
Tensions increased earlier in August when the Indian government announced its decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir state of its special status and split it into two union territories, prompting an outraged reaction from Islamabad with whom India has had strained relations over the Kashmir region for decades. Pakistan vowed to do what it takes to protect Kashmiris.
