Welcoming the revival of the stalled dialogue process between India and Pakistan, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif have marked a new beginning with their much-awaited meeting.
"We warmly welcome the latest initiative by the Prime Minister of our country and his Pakistani counterpart to revive the peace process between the two neighboring countries," Sayeed said in a statement here.
Today's meeting between the two prime ministers on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at Ufa was the first structured dialogue between India and Pakistan since Sharif attended Modi's swearing-in event in Delhi last year.
"We see a ray of hope in the fresh initiative and hope that it would turn out to be a defining moment in the Indo-Pak ties," Sayeed said.
He said his government would be looking forward to not only the stabilization of borders in the state but also the revival and expansion of the Jammu and Kashmir-specific Confidence Building Measures (CBMs), which are presently in a limbo.
The vision of a peaceful and prosperous South Asia will receive a boost with the concrete measures, especially with regard to the cross LoC travel and trade, Sayeed said.
The chief minister expressed hope that the new initiative would lead to sustained and uninterruptable dialogue which would realize peace and stability in the region.
"Such a peaceful atmosphere would allow the people of Jammu and Kashmir to reap fully the benefits of democratic system in which they have repeatedly invested their faith without adequate response so far in terms of solving their problems," Sayeed said.
Sayeed also hailed Modi's positive response to Sharif's invite to visit Pakistan. "We would be looking up with renewed hope to a new beginning on resolution of the problems of Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
He said friendship between India and Pakistan is of prime importance after decades long atmosphere of hostility of which Jammu and Kashmir has been the main victim.
