WASHINGTON
\nPakistan hopes that India would respond positively to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s overture for talks aimed at resolving the outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, with Ambassador Masood Khan also urging the United States to pay more attention to the tense region.
\n\u201cWe have always pursued diplomacy with India,\u201d the Pakistani envoy was quoted as saying in a Newsweek article covering the latest regional developments. \u201cThe Prime Minister of Pakistan has once again made an offer for engagement; the US has also expressed its support for direct dialogue between Pakistan and India on issues of concern,\u201d he told the mass-circulation magazine. \u201cWe hope there would be a reciprocal resonance from New Delhi,\u201d Masood Khan added.
\nAmbassador Masood Khan, who spoke to Newsweek\u2019s correspondent Tom O\u2019Conner on \u201cYoum-e-Istehsal \u201c, cautioned that India\u2019s illegal annexation of occupied Kashmir on August 5, 2019, and its subsequent actions like changing the demography of the disputed region posed a grave risk to the region\u2019s security.
\n\u201cThe situation has been deteriorating, It was not just annexation,\u201d the Pakistani envoy said. \u201cThere was this new domicile law which opened the floodgates for inflow of outsiders into the Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir and they are allowing their armed forces to acquire land inside Jammu and Kashmir. So they\u2019re changing the demographic composition but in addition to that, they are also doing this electoral reengineering of the constituencies to reduce Muslim majority into a minority.\u201d
\nDiscussing the regional situation, Ambassador Masood Khan said that the economic future of the neighborhood depended on stabilization in Afghanistan.
\n\u201cWe have a shared objective, to eliminate terrorism and work for infrastructure development so that we leverage our economic geography this economic geography can be used for more connectivity, for economic partnerships and I think that terrorism in all forms is a barrier in achieving that objective,\u201d he said.
\nNoting close U.S. engagements with partners along the Arabian Peninsula, Ambassador Khan argued that \u201cthis entire neighborhood should be looked at as a whole, as one big ecosystem.\u201d
\n\u201cSo, I think that in that context, the United States should be more closely involved,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, our priority is to attract U.S. investment, particularly in tech startups, which have taken off in Pakistan, but, simultaneously, United States attention to the region to improve the security situation would also be welcomed by us.\u201d
\nOn Pak-US relations, Masood Khan noted that the US diplomatic engagement in the region was always positive. \u201cWe need to have a holistic approach towards peace and security, peace, security and prosperity in the region. And we welcome United States\u2019 constructive role in this regard.\u201d
\nThe Ambassador said that the two countries were actively involved in dialogue on critical areas including counter-terrorism, security cooperation, economic development, climate change, energy, health and education. \u201cThe United States\u2019 attention to the region to improve security situation would also be welcomed by us.\u201d
\nTerming Sino-Pak ties an important relationship, the Ambassador said that China was contributing to Pakistan\u2019s economic progress directly and indirectly to stability also. \u201cAt the same time, we want to have equally robust relationship with the United States.\u201d
\n\u201cAfter the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, we\u2019ve recalibrated our relationship and are using most efficiently the space that is available to United States and Pakistan, for building economic partnerships, for continuing with a paradigm of security cooperation, particularly in regard to countering terrorism, and identifying long term strategy for strategic stability in the region.\u201d
\nEmphasizing the need for promoting people-to-people contacts, the Ambassador noted that thousands of Pakistani students, after studying in the United States, were contributing to the socio-economic development of the country. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON Pakistan hopes that India would respond positively to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s overture for talks aimed at resolving the outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, with Ambassador Masood Khan also urging the United States to pay more attention to the tense region. \u201cWe have always pursued diplomacy with India,\u201d the Pakistani envoy was quoted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-348210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n