India, Pak should engage in ‘meaningful dialogue’ to resolve their issues: UN chief

FILE – In this Sunday, July 9, 2017, file photo, United Nation Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday hoped that India and Pakistan will engage in a “meaningful dialogue” to resolve their issues. The UN chief also said he has been offering his “good offices in relation to the dialogue between the two countries that, until now, had no conditions of success.”

Guterres was speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. “I hope that the importance of both India and Pakistan is such in international affairs, I hope that the two countries will be able to engage in a meaningful dialogue,” he said.

The UN chief was responding to a question on his repeated urging of dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours. “In relation to the human rights situation, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has produced recently a very detailed report. So, the UN has clearly done its job in that regard,” Guterres said to a question by a Pakistan journalist on the situation in Kashmir.