ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday said that doors for diplomacy on outstanding disputes with India remain open, but noted that environment for a constructive dialogue was lacking.

FO spokesman Asim Iftikhar, in response to questions on ties with India at the weekly briefing, said: “In diplomacy you never shut the doors.”

He said that there was a national consensus on this issue and successive governments had pursued the same policy of seeking peaceful settlement of disputes with India. The questions were asked in the context of overtures by the new government and the appointment of a trade minister in Delhi.

PM Sharif and his Indian counterpart had exchanged messages after the former was elected as the prime minister to succeed Mr Imran Khan.

The spokesman, while answe­ring a question, noted that notwithstanding Pakis­tan’s desire for diplomatic resolution of disputes, “the environment for a fruitful, constructive dialogue is not there”.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2022