New Delhi, Oct 5: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday categorically said that he won’t hold any bilateral dialogue with Pakistan during his upcoming visit to Islamabad for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting (SCO).
“It (visit) will be for a multilateral event. I’m not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I’m going there to be a good member of the SCO,” he said at an event in New Delhi.
In the first such visit since 2015, the External Affairs Minister will attend the SCO’s Heads of Government meeting in Islamabad this month; no bilateral meetings fixed yet, said MEA.
The last time an Indian External Affairs Minister traveled to Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj in 2015 for the Heart of Asia conference and bilateral talks. India has refused to hold bilateral dialogues with Pakistan until Islamabad stops backing cross-border terror.
Jaishankar also slammed Pakistan for the stalled progress of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
“Terrorism is something which is unacceptable and despite a global view of it if one of our neighbors continues to do it – there cannot be business as usual in SAARC. That’s the reason why the SAARC meeting has not happened in recent years – but it doesn’t mean that the regional activities have stopped. In fact, in the last five to six years, we have seen far more regional integration in the Indian subcontinent,” he said.
The last time an Indian External Affairs Minister traveled to Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj in 2015 for the Heart of Asia conference and bilateral talks.
Senior officials at the MEA ruled out any significant progress in the India-Pakistan peace process at the conclave, although EAM Jaishankar will have the opportunity to meet with the Pakistani leadership. The visit will come days after the announcement of results in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election, after which the Centre has committed to restoring the J&K’s Statehood.
“At the moment, SAARC is not moving forward, we haven’t had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason – there is one member of SAARC who is practicing cross-border terrorism at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more,” Jaishankar said, referring to Pakistan’s cross-border terror activities against India.
It remains to be seen whether such an announcement could pave the way for a restoration of some of the ties snapped by Pakistan after the reorganization of J&K in 2019, particularly the recall of High Commissioners and the ending of trade and travel exchanges.