Qureshi, Sushma hold informal meeting

In a major development, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday held an informal meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on the sidelines of SCO Council of Foreign Ministers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. According to Foreign Office sources, it was an informal meeting that took place at the end of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers. However, no statement was issued by the Foreign Office.
Addressing the Pakistani community in Bishkek, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan wants to resolve all the outstanding issues with India through dialogue. Giving details of his informal interaction with Swaraj, Qureshi told the audience, "She [Swaraj] said she has an apprehension that I sometimes speak bitterly and she has brought sweets for me to sweeten my tone." "I responded that we don't speak tough but some of your actions are of the kind...we want to live like good neighbours and resolve all the outstanding issues through dialogue. We have already extended an invitation to them," Qureshi said, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan has from the day one stated, "If you take one step, we will take two steps." Qureshi also pointed out that India resorted to aggression against Pakistan on February 26, 2019 and in response Pakistan shot down two Indian jets. "We have to get our standing and status recognised and we did it. You saw, when India recently resorted to aggression, they felt that it is not the old but 'Naya' [new] Pakistan and two of their jets were shot down. And today, a meeting was also held with Shushma Ji," Qureshi further said. The foreign minister said that the government's first priority is to focus on the internal issues and fix the economic crisis, adding the country is facing economic challenges and the government inherited these from the previous governments. It was the first informal interaction between the two foreign ministers of the two countries who have not met for over three years. Earlier a planned meeting between the two foreign ministers in New York at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly could not be held in September 2018 when the Indian side unilaterally called off the scheduled meeting on the pretext of cross-border terrorism and issuing of postal stamp of Kashmiri youth leader Burhan Wani.