Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said the importance of the statement on US-Pakistani relations made by US President Donald Trump in front of a massive Indian audience in Ahmedabad city cannot be denied.
"Trump wants peace and stability in the region and has asked India to play a positive role in the area and extend a hand for promoting peace and stability in the region,” Pakistan foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Minister Qureshi said Trump has made it clear that Pakistan is a partner of peace, in the war against terrorism and the country’s progress in countering terrorism is exemplary.
Qureshi also said that peace will only prevail when the Kashmir issue is resolved, adding that India had complicated the already strained relationship between the two countries after revoking the special state of the former state on 5 August and dividing it into two federal territories.
In his address in Ahmedabad on Monday, Trump said that his office is working with Islamabad in a very "positive way" to crackdown on terror organisations and militants that operate on the "Pakistani border".
During a press conference on Tuesday in New Delhi, the US president said his relationship with both Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is good and offered to mediate if he can in any manner.
“I have a good relation with PM Khan. They are working on it. My relationships with both Modi and Khan are good. If there is anything I can do to mediate, I will do it. They are working on it. PM Modi is very religious, calm and strong, a tough person. He will take care of it, stated Trump while responding to a question regarding terrorism in Pakistan.
The relations between India and Pakistan have been on a decline since last February when a suicide bomber left 40 security personnel killed in a Kashmir attack that was claimed by a Pakistan-based terror group. The incident led to India launching airstrikes on alleged terror camps in Pakistan’s Balakot area.
In August, India revoked the special status of Kashmir and turned it a federal territory and dividing it into Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The decision sparked outrage in Pakistan, which has since raised the issue on various international forums.
