Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif in an interview with Al Arabiya TV

New Delhi: India reiterated its position on relations with Pakistan and said that a "conducive atmosphere free of terror" is needed for talks.

Reacting to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's desire of holding a conversation with PM Narendra Modi, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "We have already said that we have always wanted normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan. But there should be a conducive atmosphere which does not have terror, hostility or violence. That remains our position."

This statement came after Sharif offered last week to hold talks between the two countries to resolve outstanding issues such as Kashmir.

Earlier, in an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, Sharif said, "My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Modi is that let's sit down on the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning points like Kashmir. It is up to us to live peacefully and make progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources."

In an interview with a Dubai-based Arabic news channel, Pakistan's Prime Minister said, "We have had three wars with India, and they have only brought more misery, poverty, and unemployment to the people."

Pakistan, which is battling a severe economic crisis, public discontent against the ruling regime due to flour crisis and fuel shortage among others is also faced with rising instances of terror attacks by the proscribed outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which had ended a ceasefire with the country's security forces late last year.

"India is our neighbour country, we are neighbours. Let's be very blunt, even if we are not neighbours by choice we are there forever and it is up to us for us to live peacefully and progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources. That is up to us," Sharif said in the interview with Al Arabiya.

After this interview went viral, Sharif's office took a U-turn and raked up the issue of Kashmir and called for the restoration of Art 370.

"Prime Minister has repeatedly stated on record that talks can only take place after India had reversed its illegal action of August 5, 2019; without India's revocation of this step, negotiations are not possible. The settlement of the Kashmir dispute must be in accordance with the UN resolutions & the aspirations of the people of Jammu & Kashmir," read Pak PMO statement.

"In reference to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's interview with Al Arabiya channel, the spokesman of the Prime Minister's Office has said that the Prime Minister had consistently maintained that Pakistan and India must resolve their bilateral issues, especially the core issue of Jammu & Kashmir, through dialogue and peaceful means," added the statement.

In 2019, on August 5, the Government of India revoked the special status granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir through an amendment in Parliament and also scrapped Article 35 A, and the state was bifurcated into two union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.