NEW DELHI - Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit Monday said Islamabad was willing to hold talks with New Delhi on the sidelines of the Heart of Asia conference scheduled for next week in Amritsar.
Speaking to an Indian news channel, Basit said the schedule of Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz was not set in stone and if there was an offer of dialogue from India, then it would be accepted by Pakistan.
“We can delay talks for months or even for years. But ultimately, a solution to the problems between India and Pakistan can only come through dialogue, and therefore, both nations must sit and discuss all the issues that confront them," Basit said.
Pakistan is participating in the Heart of Asia conference despite continuing Indian aggression at the border.
At a time when heavy guns have been booming along the India-Pakistan border, Basit called for an end to hostilities and for the 2003 LoC ceasefire to be turned into a formal agreement.
"Escalation along the Line of Control is not in Pakistan's interest. The Pakistan army is heavily deployed along the country's western borders as part of the Operation Zarb-e-Azb and it is wrong to say that the escalation is being fuelled by Pakistan. We would like that hostilities along the Line of Control come to an end and that the 2003 ceasefire understanding is turned into a formal agreement between India and Pakistan," he said.
The Pakistani High Commissioner also said that the uneventful transition from one army chief to another showed a strengthening of democracy in the country.
"Pakistan's democracy has matured in a way that the era of military coups is over; an equilibrium has been set. The voice of the people and democracy is becoming stronger. There's no question of a military coup in the future," Basit said.
The Pakistani overtures come days ahead of the Heart of Asia dialogue to be held in Amritsar on December 3-4. So far, Sartaj Aziz is scheduled to land on the morning of December 4 and leave the same day.
But the Pakistani High Commissioner has given enough indications to suggest that there could be a window of opportunity for the two countries to resume the bilateral dialogue process, provided the Modi government is interested in doing so. The diplomatic ball is now in India's court.
In September this year, India decided not to take part in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit which was supposed to be held in Islamabad Pakistan.
Announcing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to not participate in the conference, India’s external affairs ministry had said there were other countries that had expressed reservations about participating in the summit amid heightened tensions over terrorism.
The Indian prime minister stepped up a drive to isolate Pakistan diplomatically after the Uri army base attack. Hours after the attack occurred, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh termed Pakistan a 'terrorist state'. India also accused Pakistan of involvement in the attack.
The Uri attack occurred days before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was set to address the United Nations General Assembly regarding Indian human rights violations in held Kashmir. Following the attack, India claimed to have conducted a cross-border 'surgical strike' against 'launch pads of terror' in Azad Jammu and Kashmir ? a claim Pakistan has strongly rejected.
Pakistan maintains India is attempting to divert the world's attention away from 'atrocities' committed by government forces in India-held Kashmir. Pakistan and India have locked horns over the Kashmir issue since Indian forces stepped up a crackdown against protesters after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed by government forces in July.