Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Pakistan could have cooperated regionally to better tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the Kashmir issue stood in the way of regional development and trade.

“We could have cooperated in the region to [better] combat Covid-19 but we didn't [...] collectively [and] regionally we could've done a better job,” Qureshi was quoted as saying by Dawn. The statement came at an exhibition in Islamabad which was also attended by foreign diplomats.

Pakistan was the only country left out of India's Vaccine Maitri (vaccine friendship) under which South Asian neighbors such Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Maldives, besides friendly nations from other regions, got COVD-19 vaccines as grant assistance. 

SAARC was not functioning due to the Kashmir issue, he said, pointing out that regional trade in Europe and Southeast Asia was growing every year.

“What's the bottleneck? We have to understand that and we need the international community to understand what the present regime in India has done is unsustainable," Qureshi said.

Qureshi said the limited resources on both sides are not being “optimally used” on development, and his country wanted to live in peace with India and wanted good neighborly relations with India.

He pointed out how badly South Asia suffered due to the Kashmir issue. The issue should be resolved through “dialogue” and “peaceful means”, he said. "The time has come to reflect, how do we move on. What is going on is unsustainable."

Qureshi’s statement is the latest one, hinting possibility of bilateral dialogue over the issue. Earlier, Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javad Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan also gave statements favoring dialogue.