Congress president Rahul Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have a deeply thought-out strategy on Pakistan, but acknowledged that it was very difficult to converse with Islamabad as there is no single institution there that holds supremacy.

Rahul Gandhi

London:

Addressing the International Institute of Strategic Studies here, Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit, talked about Indo-Pak relations which nosedived following a spate of terror attacks on Indian military bases by Pakistan-based terror groups since January 2016.

India has made it clear that it will not hold dialogue with Pakistan as terrorism and talks cannot go hand-in-hand.

Gandhi said that "there is no deeply thought-out strategy by Prime Minister Modi when it comes to Pakistan".

He also said that it was very difficult to deal with Pakistan.

Pakistan's powerful military has ruled the country for nearly half of its history since independence in 1947.

Gandhi said: "It's very difficult to converse with Pakistan because there is no one institution that holds supremacy".

"So we wait until they come to form a cohesive structure," he said at the London-based think-tank, apparently referring to the new government in Pakistan led by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In a letter to Khan on August 18, the day he was sworn in as Pakistan's 22nd prime minister, Modi expressed India's resolve to build good neighbourly relations between the two countries.

On July 30, Modi telephoned Khan to congratulate him on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party's victory in the general elections and expressed hope that both countries will work to open a new chapter in bilateral ties.