By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistan wants to resolve the Kashmir issue with India but the “required level of trust” for a negotiated settlement is lacking, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said Thursday.
Addressing her last press conference as the foreign minister, Khar said that for India, her country’s leadership decided to start investing in friendship and trust building instead of traditional hostility and animosity that the two countries witnessed in the past, Xinhua reported.
Many steps including improvement of trade relations were taken to build trust, said Khar, the country’s first woman foreign minister.
Replying to a question, she said Pakistan wants a resolution of Kashmir dispute, but pointed out that there was not required level of trust at the moment for resolution of the issue through dialogue.
Highlighting her government’s diplomatic success in five years, she said her country pursued a proactive foreign policy focusing on region and taking decisions purely in national interests.
She said the democratic government of Pakistan demonstrated its commitment to have relations with Afghanistan on the basis of sovereign equality.
“We aspire for no role in Afghanistan than to facilitate Afghan people on the course chosen by them for peace and reconciliation,” she said.
Addressing a news conference here, Khar gave an overview of the challenges confronted in the domain of foreign policy during the last five years. The minister said the foreign policy was driven by confidence rather than fear and parliament provided guidelines for intensive engagement with the world.
She said the priority of the foreign policy has been to provide peaceful and stable regional environment so that people could concentrate not on borders, disputes and animosity but on internal growth and stability.
She said China has been a strategic ally and the present government focused on transferring politically strong relations into economically strong ties.
In this regard, she particularly referred to historic Gwadar Port agreement, Chinese investment in energy and infrastructure projects and President Asif Ali Zardari’s nine visits to China.