India’s High Commissioner in Pakistan Ajay Bisaria Thursday hoped that the relations with Pakistan will improve after the 2018 general elections, a private TV channel reported. “We hope that Pak-India relations will improve following the general elections in Pakistan,” Bisaria told a seminar in Islamabad, adding that the relations between the two countries are strained since 1999. “There has been a mutual contract to not harass diplomats from either side,” he said, while referring to an agreement which was announced through a statement simultaneously issued by Pakistan’s Foreign Office and Indian Ministry of External Affairs in March this year. The Indian envoy said that poverty is the common enemy of both the countries, adding that people of both the nations do not hate each other. “The truth is that terrorist events hindered the talks between the two countries,” he said, adding that the two countries need to take baby steps in order to make their relationship better. Published in Daily Times, July 6th 2018.