India says needs 'conducive atmosphere' for talks with Pakistan

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) – India on Thursday said it wanted a neighborly relationship with Pakistan, but there should be an atmosphere that is free from terror, violence, and hostility.

The comments have come days after Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought "sincere" talks with arch-rival India on "burning issues."

"My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that let us sit down on the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning issues, such as Kashmir," Sharif said during an interview with Al Arabiya news channel aired this week.

On Thursday, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said India always wanted neighborly relations with Pakistan, but it has to be in a conducive atmosphere, that doesn't have "terror, violence, and hostility."

"This is our position," he said during a weekly press briefing.

The relations between the two arch-rival countries plummeted to a new low after August 2019, when India scrapped the longstanding special status of Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in Islamabad downgrading its diplomatic ties with New Delhi.

Bagchi also said that they have taken up the matter with Myanmar regarding the landing of a bomb in an Indian village during Myanmar’s military airstrikes against a rebel group near the Indian border.

"We have confirmed there was no violation of our air space," he said, adding that one bomb fell on the Indian side on Jan. 10.

"Such incidents are concerning for us and we have taken up the matter with Myanmar," he added.