Saudi Arabia and longstanding ally Pakistan signed several agreements Saturday and vowed to reset ties strained by months of disagreement over policy on the Kashmir dispute.On his seventh visit to the wealthy kingdom since his 2018 election, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was given a warm welcome by Saudi officials in the western coastal city of Jeddah.He was greeted by Saudi Arabia’s de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the airport, before holding talks with Saudi officials at Jeddah’s Al-Salam Palace.“They affirmed the depth of relations between the two…
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Former Deputy PM of Italy Matteo Salvini expressed solidarity with Kashmiri’s
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and leader of the coalition ruling party, Matteo Salvini, have expressed his support for the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) facing human rights violations in the region. He also promised to raise the issue at the European Union (EU) forums, received a press release here issued by Embassy of Pakistan in Italy. Leader of the second largest party in the Italian Parliament Salvini has been a very active member of the EU for many years. In a meeting with Pakistan…
Read MorePakistan seeks specific actions in disputed Kashmir form India to move head in talks
Pakistan is willing to move forward in its engagement with India, potentially including formal bilateral dialogue on resolving the Kashmir dispute, if its eastern neighbour takes certain specified steps “to ease lives” in Kashmir, senior Pakistani sources have told. The Pakistani sources, who have knowledge of the situation and spoke to KP, shared for the first time a list of “examples” of actions that the Indian government could take in Indian-administered Kashmir to move the talks closer to a formal bilateral dialogue. Ties between the two nuclear-armed countries have been…
Read MoreAs Narender Modi extends olive branch all focus shifted to Kashmir Issue
Pro-freedom Hurriyat group welcomes Modi’s appeal to Pakistan leader Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday sent a letter to his Pakistani counterpart on the occasion of Pakistan’s Republic Day, calling for “cordial relations” between the two neighbors in a move that marks a major thaw between New Delhi and Islamabad. The letter addressed to Prime Minister Imran Khan comes a month after both countries announced a ceasefire along the disputed border in Kashmir. “As a neighboring country, India desires cordial relations with the people of Pakistan,” Modi wrote in…
Read MoreTo break Kashmir Impasse secret talks held between India & Pakistan
Top intelligence officers from India and Pakistan held secret talks in Dubai in January in a new effort to calm military tension over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, people with close knowledge of the matter told our reporter in Delhi. Ties between the nuclear-armed rivals have been on ice since a suicide bombing of an Indian military convoy in Kashmir in 2019 traced to Pakistan-based militants that led to India sending warplanes to Pakistan. Later that year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew Indian-ruled Kashmir’s autonomy in order to…
Read MoreWhat prompted the India-Pakistan ceasefire pact along the Kashmir border?
Politicians and experts reflect on reasons that made the two nations agree to a rare reaffirmation of a 2003 ceasefire along the disputed border. For nearly two weeks now, a tense silence has prevailed over the skies of Jura, a small village less than a kilometre away from the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that divides Pakistan-administered and Indian-administered Kashmir. The village, located in the region’s Neelum Valley, has long been in the firing line of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, who have traded frequent small-arms,…
Read MorePakistan seeks ‘Guarantees’ on J&K for better ties
The thaw comes after a considerable deterioration in ties that followed New Delhi’s decision to do away with the special status granted to J&K under Article 370. Constitutional guarantees on not changing the demography of Jammu & Kashmir would go a long way in creating an “enabling environment”, Pakistan has conveyed to India, highly placed government officials told. The thaw in the India-Pakistan relationship that started with the restoration of the 2003 ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in February, through a statement by the Director Generals of Military…
Read MorePakistan to defers trade with India until Delhi reviews Kashmir’s Status: Shah Mehmood Qureshi
Pakistan’s cabinet on Thursday put off allowing imports of cotton and sugar from neighbouring India until Delhi reviews its 2019 move to revoke the Kashmir region’s special status, the foreign minister said. In an effort to cool local demand and prices, Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), the country’s top economic decision-making body, gave the go-ahead on Wednesday for the imports, which would have ended nearly two years of trade suspension between the nuclear-armed rivals. “It was a consensus opinion, including the prime minister, that as long as India doesn’t review…
Read MoreIndia has several human rights issues, working on restoring normalcy in Kashmir: US report
India has several significant human rights issues, including unlawful and arbitrary killings, restrictions on freedom of expression and the press, corruption and tolerance of violations of religious freedom, a US report said on Tuesday. India has several significant human rights issues, including unlawful and arbitrary killings, restrictions on freedom of expression and the press, corruption and tolerance of violations of religious freedom, a US report said on Tuesday. In its ‘2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’ to the US Congress, the Department of State noted the improvement in the…
Read MoreGeneral Qamar Javed Bajwa calls for a peaceful Kashmir Resolution
Pakistan’s powerful army chief on March 18 urged for a peaceful resolution in the disputed region of Kashmir and for peace talks with archrival India, a rare conciliatory call amid a weeks-long cease-fire across the volatile territory. Unsettled disputes between the two South Asian nuclear rivals are “dragging this region back to the swamp of poverty and underdevelopment,” said Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, addressing a gathering of scholars and experts discussing national security issues at a seminar in the capital, Islamabad. There was no immediate comment from India. The disputed…
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