Srinagar: The Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday directed German counterpart Heiko Maas’ attention towards the “very delicate situation” in Kashmir and said in needed to be “addressed immediately”.
Maas is on an official visit to Pakistan and was briefing the media about the matters discussed in the meeting with Qureshi earlier today.
“If there are human rights violations [in Kashmir], if there are atrocities, then there will be a reaction and that reaction, at times, is difficult to contain,” he said, reiterating Pakistan’s stance that “dialogue was the only way forward”, Dawn reported.
“Pakistan has never been shy of dialogue,” he declared and added that voices within India were also insisting that Kashmiri leadership and people should be engaged.
The report said that Maas lauded Pakistan’s role in the ongoing Afghan peace process. He also appreciated Pakistan’s “quick release” of Indian pilot Abhinandan and said the move had helped deescalate tensions between the two countries. In response to a question, he said that the German government acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts towards de-escalation. He further said that he had a meeting with the Indian foreign minister as well where he had stressed the need for a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute.
Both foreign ministers also underlined the importance of trade relations between the countries and Qureshi announced that Volkswagen and Siemens had shown interest in investing in Pakistan.
The German foreign minister urged Islamabad and New Delhi to solve disputes through dialogue.