close
India, Pakistan avoid blaming each other at SCO meeting
THE HINDU

India, Pakistan avoid blaming each other at SCO meeting

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Pakistan counterpart Ishaq Dar interact ‘informally’ during the first visit by an Indian Foreign Minister to Pakistan in nine years; atmosphere of exchanges more positive than in previous encounters

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar reportedly held an “informal interaction” with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar at the concluding lunch for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday, according to sources on both sides.

The lunch was hosted by Mr. Sharif who chaired the SCO session where, unlike on past occasions, both India’s and Pakistan’s national statements avoided contentious language on sensitive issues.

Officials stressed that the conversation was part of normal diplomatic discourse, given that Mr. Jaishankar was attending the lunch along with dignitaries from all 10 SCO nations including Russia, China, Iran, Belarus, and the central Asian states, and that “all leaders talked to each other during lunch and in the waiting lounge”. The exchange reflected a much warmer note than similar previous encounters, including at the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Goa in 2023, and the UN General Assembly meet last month. 

‘Productive meet’

Leaving Islamabad at the end of what had been the first visit by an Indian External Affairs Minister to Pakistan in nine years, Mr. Jaishankar thanked Mr. Sharif and Mr. Dar, commending them for a “productive” meet.

“A productive meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government concluded in Islamabad today,” the External Affairs Minister said on social media, adding that “India made a positive and constructive contribution to the deliberations.”

During his speech, Mr. Jaishankar urged SCO members to have an “honest conversation” about the state of the SCO region, which represents 40% of the global population and is the world’s largest such regional group. 

“If trust is lacking or cooperation inadequate, if friendship has fallen short and good neighbourliness is missing somewhere, there are surely reasons to introspect and causes to address,” he said. Pointing to India’s concerns over China’s Belt and Road Initiative, he said that cooperation on trade, investment, connectivity, and energy flows must respect territorial integrity and sovereignty issues.

Terrorism, radicalism and separatism dominate talks at the SCO Summit

Avoiding contentious issues

Mr. Jaishankar referred to cross-border terrorism, but in terms of the SCO’s 2001 charter’s phrasing of the “three evils” in the region: terrorism, separatism, extremism.

“If activities across borders are characterised by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity, and people-to-people exchanges in parallel,” Mr. Jaishankar said in his statement at Wednesday morning’s plenary session, avoiding specific Indian concerns over terror-financing, “justifications for terrorism”, and other points referring to Pakistan that he has raised in previous SCO meetings. 

Mr. Sharif made no references to the Kashmir dispute in his speech, a departure from his own speech at the UN General Assembly on September 27, where he had likened India’s actions in Kashmir to Israel’s “colonial settler’s project” in Palestine. In 2023, then-Pakistan FM Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had also raised the dispute, mentioning SCO States that “violated UN Security Council Resolutions” in a “unilateral and illegal” manner — a reference to the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 — and saying they should refrain from “weaponising terrorism for diplomatic point scoring”.

‘Positivity at SCO’

Wednesday’s exchanges, and the lack of negative comments during the event, were hailed by the Pakistani hosts, who said the SCO summit — that resulted in eight signed documents — had been successful.

“I think there’s a lot of positivity around the SCO in Islamabad. I think things have gone positively, and Mr. Jaishankar was received by Prime Minister [Sharif] at the events,” Pakistani Information Minister Ataullah Tarar told The Hindu. When asked about whether the positivity could translate from the multilateral event to bilateral ties between India and Pakistan, he said that “there is a lot in the past [of the relationship] between the two countries”, adding that any new India-Pakistan initiatives in the future would be based “purely on reciprocity”. 

In Islamabad, Mr. Jaishankar held formal bilateral talks only with the Prime Minister of Mongolia on the sidelines of the SCO. Officials pointed out that he had met with the leaders of most of the other SCO countries in Kazakhstan in July when he attended the SCO Heads of State Summit in place of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Economic cooperation

Among the documents signed by the SCO countries in Pakistan were proposals for an Economic Dialogue Programme and new economic strategy, cooperation between the trade promotion organisations of the SCO member States, cooperation in the field of “creative economy” development, and the passing of the SCO’s annual budget. A joint statement issued at the summit emphasised the importance of “optimising the region’s potential in areas such as green development, digital economy, trade, e-commerce, start-ups and innovation, poverty alleviation, health care, transport, logistics connectivity, energy, including renewable energy, communications, science and technology, environment, and climate change.” 

The SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting will move to Russia next year, while the SCO Heads of State summit will be held in China.


Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *