Ready to talk for peace: Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif's offer to India

 Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, India-Pakistan peace talks, Kashmir issue, Jammu and Kashmir, Operation Sindoor, Indian armed forces, Indian Army, shehbaz Sharif, Zaheer Ahmed

 

Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, stated on Thursday that despite recent military clashes, he is open to holding peace negotiations with India. Sharif also emphasized the need to resolve the Kashmir dispute to bring about enduring peace. His remarks come during a time when tensions between the two countries were at an all-time high after the terror attack in Pahalgam.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan said Thursday that he was open to having discussions "for peace" with India, although tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors were still high after a recent period of military conflict.

 

When Shehbaz visited the Kamra air base in Pakistan's Punjab province, he declared, "We are ready to talk with it for peace."

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir, and Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu were among the top military leaders and officials who accompanied him. He had meetings there with soldiers and officers who had been part in the recent conflict with India.

Sharif did, however, restate that resolving the protracted Kashmir dispute is one of the "conditions for peace."
Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh are "integral and inalienable parts" of India, which has historically maintained this position.

 

"We will only discuss terror in our talks with Pakistan," Jaishankar said.

The repatriation of a portion of J&K that is illegally occupied by Pakistan (PoK) is the sole issue regarding Kashmir that has to be resolved, according to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday. We are willing to talk to Pakistan about that (the restoration of the PoK).
I therefore ask that you properly state our positions. At the Honduran embassy's opening, he informed the reporters, "The government's position is very, very clear."

With an emphasis on cross-border terrorism, he went on to say that India and Pakistan would continue to have only bilateral connections and interactions. Jaishankar also urged Pakistan to turn over terrorists who are alleged to have attacked India.

For years, the national consensus has been bilateralism, yet nothing has changed at all. The prime minister was very clear that the only topic of discussion with Pakistan would be terror. The terrorists' infrastructure must be shut down, and Pakistan has a list of terrorists that must be turned over. They are aware of what to do. We are ready to talk to them about what has to be done to combat terrorism. "Those are the discussions that are possible," Jaishankar stated.
After India and Pakistan signed an agreement on May 10, this was Sharif's second visit to a defense installation.

What happened so far

On the intervening night of May 6 and 7, India initiated Operation Sindoor in retaliation for the deaths of 26 people in the Pahalgam terror incident in J&K. Over 100 terrorists were killed as a result of the operation, which involved the military targeting nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Then, on May 8, 9, and 10, Pakistan launched a number of drone and missile attacks. Rafiqui, Murid, Chaklala, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, and Chunian were among the Pakistani military sites that were the target of a strong counterattack by the Indian military in retaliation.