Create atmosphere of trust, Modi tells Imran

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan that his country needs to create an “environment of trust, free of terror, violence and hostility” for the two neighbours to have “normal and cooperative relations”, which India seeks.
Modi wrote this to Khan in response to his congratulatory message earlier this month on his becoming the Prime Minister again.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a media briefing here on Thursday that the Prime Minister’s letter made no mention about talks and termed as “fake news” the reports appearing in Pakistani media.
“There is no change in the situation or our position…It is an established diplomatic protocol that whenever someone writes to you, you respond. The Prime Minister received letters from several foreign leaders and he responded,” Kumar told reporters, adding the June 12 letter to Khan was keeping in with that protocol.
He said Modi wrote to Khan that, “We want normal and cooperative relations” and for that Pakistan needs to “create an atmosphere which is free of terror and violence”.
When asked to comment on reports in Pakistani media which claimed that the Indian Prime Minister had expressed readiness to hold talks, the MEA spokesperson termed it as “distortion” and “fake news peddling”.