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Colombo, Feb 26 (IANS) Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has highlighted that the he believes and supports resolving all regional conflicts through dialogue, insisting that Pakistan offered dialogue to India also.
"Initiating wars gives rise to more disputes. We offered India to hold talks but the country did not pay heed to it," he said during his two-day visit to Sri Lanka.
"Immediately when I came into power, I approached our neighbour India and explained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the way forward for the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue," he added.
Khan said that even though his efforts to bring India to the dialogue table did not succeed, he was optimistic that "eventually sense will prevail".
"The only way the subcontinent can tackle poverty is by improving trade relations," he said.
"Pakistan wishes for the Kashmir dispute to be resolved according to the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and this can be only achieved through dialogue," he added.
Pakistan PM's visit to Sri Lanka was focused on increasing trade relations between the two countries, with a special focus on bringing both countries closer in sharing defence capabilities.
"Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka have remained affected by terrorism, with tourism declining as a result," he said.
"Better relations between the countries in the region can help achieve the cause of eradicating poverty," he added.
Taking the opportunity, Khan also offered Sri Lanka to become part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), highlighting that it would lead towards prosperity and development of the entire region.
During the two-day visit of Pakistan premier to Sri Lanka, a new defence credit line facility of $50 million was opened for the Sri Lankan government.
In a statement, it was stressed that both Pakistan and Sri Lanka need to build stronger partnership for supporting each other, specially in dealing with matter of security, terrorism, organised crime and drug and narcotic trafficking as well as intelligence-sharing.
"Islamabad and Colombo also expressed satisfaction in the existing bilateral cooperation in the field of defence and noted that the elevation of staff-level talks to defence dialogue has further provided an opportunity to expand security sector relations," read an official statement.
Pakistan PM's visit to Sri Lanka is being seen as Islamabad's efforts towards attracting support and forming alliance with regional forces, aimed at becoming a regional front liner of connection among the regional countries.
--IANS
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