NEW DELHI: Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan on Wednesday said that having peace with his country will benefit India economically as it will open direct access to the Central Asia region through Pakistani territory to India.

Central Asia, which includes five resource-rich countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are rich in oil and gas and other minerals. 

Talking at the inauguration of the two-day Islamabad Security Dialogue, Khan claimed that after coming to power in 2018 he and his government has done everything to improve relations with India however it was for India to take the first step. "Unless India reciprocates, we cannot do much," he said in his address.

Khan dwelt at length on the issue of peace in the region, including what he called was an 'unresolved Kashmir issue' which he said was the biggest hurdle between the two countries. 

India on its part has repeatedly said that talks and terror cannot go together and Pakistan should take demonstrable steps against terror groups operating from its soil responsible for terror attacks against India.

In the first week of February last month, Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had also said that both countries must resolve the longstanding issue of Jammu and Kashmir in a dignified and peaceful manner and bring this human tragedy to its logical conclusion. 

India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had responded to Bajwa by reiterating that India desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror.

For the past few years, Pakistan has unsuccessfully tried to drum up international support against India for withdrawing Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcating it into two Union territories in August 2019.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution was its internal matter. The MEA has also underlined that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India.

Ties between India and Pakistan had deteriorated after a terror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in 2016 by terror groups based in Pakistan. Subsequent attacks, including one on the Indian Army camp in Uri and the Pulwama terror attack on 14 February 2019 in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed further worsened the relationship.

In response to the Pulwama terror attack on February 26, 2019, India's warplanes crossed the de facto border in the disputed region of Kashmir and bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in the vicinity of the town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.