ISLAMABAD: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Monday congratulated Pranab Mukherjee, the newly elected president of South Asian rival India.

“It gives me great pleasure to extend to you warm greetings and felicitations on your well-deserved election to the high office of the President of the Republic of India,” Zardari said in a message addressed to Mukherjee.

“We wish Your Excellency long life, health and happiness and continued progress and prosperity to the people of India.”

The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since independence in 1947, but in 2010 resumed a fragile peace process suspended by the 2008 Mumbai attacks blamed on Pakistani gunmen.