NEW DELHI: Globalisation without regional integration will never realise its full potential, and there should be irreversible steps towards peace between Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit said in Mumbai on Tuesday.

“Regional stability is in our mutual interest and peace through a peaceful process,” Mr Basit said in a keynote address at the Gateway House: Indian Council of Global relations. His theme was: ‘Pakistan, India: Economic opportunities and Political Challenges’.

The high commissioner said Pakistan was rich in natural and human resources.

“Our youth is our future. And when our two countries are able to work together opportunities multiply to our mutual benefit.”

He described Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s `region-first vision’ as not only timely but futuristic too.

“Regional connectivity, interdependence and integration are the best hope to put our people on the trajectory of well-being and prosperity,” he said, stressing that economic potential between the two countries was huge.

“Let’s take irreversible steps forward and work together for peace and prosperity.”

Both countries need to move beyond their mutually conjured stereotypes.

“Our people deserve far better. Above all they deserve to live in peace enabling them to realise maximum,” he said.