Intend Picking Up From Where Vajpayee and I Left Off in 1999: Nawaz Sharif to NDTV

In an exclusive interview to NDTV's Barkha Dutt, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in New Delhi to attend Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony, says he looks forward to meeting Mr Modi and that it is a great chance to reach out to each other.

Following are the highlights of the interview:

• It is a great moment and a great opportunity
• This is a chance to reach out to each other
• Both have strong mandate, could help turn new page in relations
• No two nations have so much cultural and traditional similarity
• Why not turn the similarities into our strength?
• I very much look forward to meeting Mr Modi
• Should remove fears, mistrust and misgivings about each other
• We should rid region of decades of instability, insecurity
• This is BJP of Vajpayee, for whom I have greatest of respect
• Intend picking up from where Vajpayee and I left off in 1999