Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed optimism about improving relations with India and meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an interview with Indian journalist Barkha Dutt, ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Pakistan is hosting the summit on October 15-16, and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is expected to attend.
Sharif, a strong advocate for better ties with India, told Dutt, “I hope there is an opportunity to revive our relationship.” Though he declined to appear on camera, he spoke on record, and Dutt later shared the conversation on her YouTube channel.
Sharif stated, “It would have been great if PM Modi had also attended the SCO summit in Pakistan. I hope we will have the chance to sit together in the near future.”
In 2023, Nawaz emphasized the need to normalize relations with neighboring countries, particularly India, Afghanistan, and Iran, while strengthening ties with China. He recalled that both Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999 and Narendra Modi in 2015 had visited Pakistan during his tenure as prime minister.
Upon Modi’s re-election for a third term, Nawaz and his brother, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, congratulated Modi, with Nawaz stating that the recent elections showed the Indian people’s confidence in Modi’s leadership. He urged a shift from “hate to hope” to shape a better future for the two billion people of South Asia. Modi responded by thanking them for their wishes and reaffirmed India’s commitment to peace and progress for the region.
India-Pakistan relations have remained tense since 1947, mainly due to the long-standing conflict over Jammu and Kashmir.