Pak's 'U-turn', says foreign minister never said PM Modi offered dialogue

New Delhi: After Pakistan’s newly-appointed foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed dialogue in his “congratulatory letter” to Imran Khan, Pakistan has now denied any such remark.

A statement from the Pakistani government said, “Foreign Minister hadn't stated ‘Indian Prime Minister had made offer of dialogue’, but had said that Indian PM in his letter to PM Imran Khan, had also mentioned something similar to what the Foreign Minister elucidated earlier, i.e. the way forward was only through constructive engagement”.

Qureshi had claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a letter to Imran Khan and indicated a beginning of talks between the two countries.

However, India rejected the claims and said the letter by PM Modi did not state anything about a new proposal for dialogue with Pakistan, official sources told news agency ANI.

Read: Modi's 'congratulatory' letter to Imran Khan didn't propose dialogue: India

PM Modi wrote to his newly-elected Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan, conveying New Delhi's commitment to pursue "meaningful" and "constructive" engagement with Islamabad and emphasising the need to work for a terror-free South Asia, official sources said on Monday.

In a letter to Khan on August 18, the day he was sworn in as Pakistan's 22nd prime minister, PM Modi also expressed India's commitment to building good neighbourly relations between the two countries while congratulating him, the sources said.

Following Imran Khan and his party’s victory in Pakistan polls, Prime Minister Modi had telephoned Khan to congratulate him and expressed hope that both countries will work to open a new chapter in bilateral ties.

Days before PM Modi's phone call, Khan said he wanted to improve ties with India and resolve all the issues through talks.

"If India takes one step towards us, we will take two," he said.