India and Pakistan resolving differences by military means is “madness” and the only way the two nuclear-armed rivals can fix ties is through dialogue, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has stated.

“We hope that our tension with India decreases, so we do not have to buy arms because we want to spend money on human development,” he was quoted by Sputnik. India and Pakistan should strive to defuse tensions by peaceful means because otherwise both countries would find themselves on the brink of an all-out war.

There is no way two nuclear-armed countries should think of resolving the differences through military means. It is madness.

The two rivals engaged in a cross-border standoff earlier this year, when India launched airstrikes on what it said were camps belonging to a Pakistan-based Islamist group that carried out attacks on Indian soil. Pakistani military retaliated, shooting down an Indian Air Force jet and capturing a pilot.

Both countries managed to ease tensions although sporadic violence and cross-border shelling did take place in contested Kashmir. Life steadily returned to normal on both sides of the Kashmir border – and it provides new openings for India and Pakistan, Khan believes.

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“We hope that, as I’ve said, now that the elections are over, India will respond positively to these initiatives, to further people-to-people contact,” he remarked. However, “people-to-people contact only works when the governments also try to get closer,” he admitted.

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