Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit on Saturday said that talks between India and Pakistan were a “necessity and a “prerequisite” to improve relations between the two countries, reported PTI. The outgoing Pakistan envoy to India said bilateral discussions should not have been discontinued after the Pathankot attack in 2016.

He was speaking at an event organised by the South Asia Forum for Art and Creative Heritage.

“Both the countries need to decide that they need to be engaged, as was decided at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt [in 2009], where we decided to separate talks from [action against] terrorism,” Basit said. “We should not be hostage to forces that do not want progress.”

He stressed on the importance of resolving the Kashmir conflict to make real progress.

“Pathankot or no Pathankot, we need to decide that we will not disrupt the dialogue process,” he said while referring to the 2016 attack. “While we were cooperating on the Pathankot case, we could have carried on the dialogue process. That would have helped.”

The Pakistani envoy also pitched for the right to self-determination for Kashmiris.