NEW YORK - India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said his country was interested in improving its relations with Pakistan but the onus was on Islamabad for normalising the ties and depended on the kind of “provocation” that comes from that country.
“With Pakistan, the border frequently becomes tensed, where there are exchanges on that border. I think the message in the context of Pakistan is that India is interested in improving the relationship with Pakistan and ,therefore, the onus of the responsibility for creating an environment in which the relationship can grow would also depend much more on Pakistan and the kind of provocation that comes from there,” Jaitley said at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank.
“The message that we are interested in normalising our relationship with them or at least improving our relationship with them and the onus is on Pakistan for this purpose has been loud and clear,” he added.
Jaitley, who began his 10-day visit to the US on Thursday, made the remarks while responding to a question on India’s foreign policy.
New Delhi and Islamabad have exchanged sharp words in the wake of Prime Minister Modi’s critical remarks about Pakistan during his Dhaka visit and India’s cross-border military action in Myanmar.
Earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoned his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to greet him on the eve of the holy month of Ramazan.
Jaitley spoke about Pakistan, after claiming India’s “excellent” ties with its other neighbours such as Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. “There was a time, not so long ago, where India was in the midst of a disturbed neighbourhood and a number of problems of that disturbed neighbourhood was spilling into India,” he said, adding, that Modi took an unprecedented decision to invite the heads of government of the SAARC nations for his swearing-in ceremony at New Delhi last year.
“This turned out to be a very correct and a very positive move and since then we have not looked back,” he said. On India’s ties with China, Jaitley said Modi has particularly developed an “excellent relationship” even with the Chinese leadership.
“We have a boundary issue with them and the boundary issue is unresolved. There are other several issues relating to China which are issues of our concern but at least the tense situation around the boundary does not exist,” he said, adding, that economic and trade relations with Beijing have also become “fairly normal.”
AGENCIES add: New Delhi has released 88 Pakistani fishermen lodged in Gujarat jails, following a decision Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed by phone to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on June 16.
The 88 fishermen left the western coastal state on Friday and would be handed over to Pakistani authorities at the Wagah-Attari border check post near Amritsar in Punjab on June 21.
The release and repatriation of Pakistani fishermen was considered by the New Delhi government in coordination with the Gujarat government so that the fishermen could be with their families during the month of Ramadan, an official statement said in New Delhi.
Of the total 115 Pakistani fishermen at present lodged in jails in Gujarat, New Delhi decided to release and repatriate 88 whose nationality was confirmed by Pakistan.
This was made possible after withdrawal of cases against them with the consent of the competent courts on “humanitarian grounds”, said the statement.
“Even though there are media reports about nine more fishermen whose nationality has been confirmed by the Pakistan government, the union home ministry has not received any communication regarding such confirmation as per the available records,” the statement added.
As for the release and repatriation of the 27 Pakistani fishermen still lodged in jails in Gujarat, the statement said the issue will be considered by the government as and when their nationality is confirmed by the Pakistan High Commission in India.