Pakistan not begging for talks with India, tells Basit

NEW DELHI: "Pakistan is not begging for dialogue, if India not ready," Pakistan High Commissioner to New Delhi Abdul Basit said Friday, noting that talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours were 'inevitable'.

Basit, in an interview to an Indian daily, said Pakistan was willing to wait for India to agree to dialogue, but admitted that the ice may not be broken at the Heart of Asia moot, which Adviser to PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz is due to attend in Amritsar this weekend.

"We need to work on how to break the impasse between us. It is a slightly skewed approach to think India is doing a favour by having a dialogue process," he said when asked about his suggestion for a bilateral dialogue.

"Pakistan is not begging for dialogue. If India is not ready, we can always wait. We will continue to work to break the impasse, but we are very clear that dialogue is the only way our countries can move forward and they cannot live in a state of perpetual hostility."

Talking to each other is inevitable. Whether it happens 1 year down the road or 3 years down the road, he added.

Replying to a question on border skirmishes and whether the ceasefire agreement was 'dead', the high commissioner said: "We would very much like peace and tranquility to be preserved. I think this confidence building measure should not be ended. We must preserve it and then consolidate."

Asked about the possibility of talks alongside Pakistan's international campaign on Kashmir, Abdul Basit reaffirmed that Pakistan will continue to extend moral and diplomatic support to the people of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

"To expect Pakistan to look the other way would not be possible. And we are not alone. OIC has issued a statement on support of IoK. UN Human Rights Commissioner wants to send a fact finding mission there."