NEW DELHI: “I intend taking up threads from where Vajpayee and I left off in 1999,” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said in an interview with NDTV on Monday.
The Pakistani premier is currently in New Delhi to attend the Indian Prime Minister-elect Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.
Sharif, who is among the six South Asian leaders invited to the oath taking ceremony, said that he sees this as a “great moment and a great opportunity.”
“Both governments have a strong mandate. This could help in turning a new page in our relations. This is the same BJP’s Prime Minister Vajpayee for whom I have the greatest of respect,” Sharif said as he likened the BJP’s election victory to his own win last year.
During his stay in India, Sharif will also meet the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday as part of a series of bilateral meetings with all eight world leaders.
“We should remove fears, mistrust and misgivings about each other,” he told NDTV, adding, “Both countries should rid the region of instability and security that has plagued us for decades.”
