Qureshi greets new Indian government, hopes for better ties

24 May, 2009

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi while greeting the new Indian government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed the hope that process of composite dialogue would restart. In a telephonic interview to a private TV channel from his hometown late Friday night the minister said that hopefully the new Indian government would opt for constructive engagements with Pakistan.
He said that Pakistan wants improved relation with India because there is a need for regional approach to combat the menace of terrorism effectively. India is an important country of the region and it should play its due role for the regional peace, he added. He said that South Asian region lags behind the world in race of economic growth and progress and basic reason for this situation is tension between India and Pakistan.
Pakistan sincerely wants to remove this tension, the minister said adding the solution of outstanding issues was imperative to achieve this target. "I think and hope the new Indian government would restart the process of composite dialogue and we are ready to go ahead positively", Qureshi said.
The minister said that Pakistan's image at international scenario has improved manifold during the past two weeks and the successful visit of President, to Washington, London and Paris is a testimony to this fact. He said that presently an impression has emerged at the international scenario that there was national harmony in Pakistan and country's political leadership and the stakeholders were fighting the menace of terrorism with unity.

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