All the speculation notwithstanding, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar made it clear on Saturday that he would not engage in dialogue with Pakistan during his forthcoming visit to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation conclave. At a meeting here in the national capital, he said, “This visit is 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 underscored adherence to etiquette and added, “As a polite and civilized person, I will behave accordingly.”
Jaishankar also indirectly attacked Pakistan when he said the functioning of SAARC is stalled because of its actions. He elaborated, “At the moment, the SAARC is not moving ahead, and we have not had a meeting for a very simple reason—one member is practicing cross-border terrorism at least against one other member.”
He underlined, “Terrorism is an unacceptable happening,” he called off, and thus, as long as this issue was not resolved, normalcy in SAARC could not be revived. “This is why SAARC meetings have not been held in the last few years, but that does not mean regional activities have ceased. We have seen more regional integration in the Indian subcontinent in the last 5-6 years,” he added.
India has always maintained that bilateral engagements with Pakistan would be resumed only when the latter stops sponsoring cross-border terror.
Jaishankar’s visit would be the first by an Indian external affairs minister to Pakistan in almost nine years. The two countries are locked in a serious confrontation over terrorism-related issues. Pakistan is hosting the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in the capital city on October 15 and 16.
The last Indian external affairs minister to travel to Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj, who attended a conference on Afghanistan in Islamabad in December 2015. The visit was declared by the external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, who said the minister would lead the Indian delegation at the SCO summit.
