Pakistan, Aug. 14 -- Barely three months after Narendra Modi made the first visit to Norway by an Indian prime minister in 43 years, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stood beside Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad on Thursday as the latter briefed him on Pakistan's position that Jammu and Kashmir "remains one of the longstanding unresolved international disputes."

Mr Eide also described Islamabad's mediation as a "massive task" and said the work of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Mr Dar and Field Marshal Asim Munir amounted to a "service to the world."

Norway had already declared full support for Pakistan-led mediation in April. Coming from a country that has invested decades in peace facilitation, from the Oslo process t...