Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi congratulates Jaishankar, calls for dialogue

S. Jaishankar. (File Photo: IANS)


Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is understood to have sent a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar congratulating him on his assumption of office.

In the letter, Qureshi is also believed to have favoured the resumption of dialogue between the two countries.

This comes amid the visit of Pakistan Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood to India in a personal capacity. Mahmood was until recently the Pakistan High Commissioner to India and was in New Delhi to take his family back home after his children’s exams.

India has already ruled out the possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan in Bishkek on the margins of the SCO Summit on 13-14 June.

“To the best of my knowledge, no meeting has been planned between PM Modi and Pakistan PM Imran Khan at the SCO Summit in Bishkek,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the media on Thursday.

Khan had also sent a congratulatory message to Modi on his re-election via a twitter post on 23 May. He later followed it up with a phone call to Modi, saying he desired to work with the Indian leader for peace in the region.

Relations between the two countries nosedived following the Pulwama terror attack by an associate of the Pakistani-based JeM in February. This was followed by India conducting aerial strikes on a JeM terror camp in Pakistan and the subsequent aerial engagements between the Air Force of the two countries.