It would have been ‘great’ if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also attended the heads-of-government gathering of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Pakistan, PML-N President Nawaz Sharif said on Monday.

“I have always been a supporter of good relations with India. I hope there is an opportunity to revive our relationship,” he said in an interview with Indian journalist Barkha Dutt in Lahore.

“I have always been a supporter of good relations with India. I hope there is an opportunity to revive our relationship. It would have been a great thing if PM Modi had also attended the SCO summit. I do hope that he [Indian PM Modi] and us will have an opportunity to sit together in the not-so-distant future.”

She interviewed him at the Punjab Chief Minister’s Office in Lahore. She is representing Mojo Story in Pakistan to cover the regional summit. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was also present during the interaction.

Dutt is one of the 11 Indian journalists in Pakistan to cover the regional summit. Later, she was on the Aaj News show Spotlight with Munizae Jahangir. She spoke about her interaction with the PML-N president.

“Firstly, I want to say that Nawaz Sharif spoke on the record with me,” she said while reacting to questions she received during her interview.

“Nawaz said that he would not appear on camera, but he said whatever ’I am saying is on record and you may use it by quoting me,” the Indian journalist quoted the former prime minister as saying.

She went on to add that the PML-N president did not speak for long on record. Dutt added that Nawaz’s response to Modi’s attendance at the summit was in response to a query over his hope for future engagements

According to her, Nawaz stated that there would be “another opportunity that we and him can sit and talk about our relationship.”

When asked, the PML-N president stood by his statement that it was Pakistan’s fault for the violation of the Lahore declaration. “Yes, I said it. I say what is in my mind.”

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Dutt, who has covering politics for so many years, said that Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar was “one of the most powerful and influential” ministers of the government. “He is representing Modi,” she said.

She was of the view that Nawaz’s statement was not a kind of thaw in ties between the two countries, but “this business is not unusual.”

The Indian journalist added that it has to be seen how much space Nawaz has to carry forward his position. “This is a big question as is he alone in this effort to normalise ties with India.”