New Delhi: As speculations rife over India’s participation at the Shanghai Cooperation Operation (SCO) Heads of the Government meeting, and the decision to send External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar to Islamabad for the event instead of PM Modi, India’s former High Commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, told ETV Bharat India should participate at the SCO meet, basically because this is a plurilateral event and India is committed to SCO. India was the chair last year.
Bisaria pointed out that Pakistan’s foreign minister had visited Goa in person last year for the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting. If India is to participate, it is certainly not the PM, because that has been the tradition, while noting that the PM takes part in the Heads of the State summit and for the Heads of the Government event, it's either the Vice President or the External Affairs Minister.
“I would recommend that India should participate at the ministerial level whether it's external affairs minister or some other minister,” Bisaria said.
It would raise eyebrows if any high-level minister visits Pakistan for the SCO meet. It's worth noting that there has been no attendance by an Indian minister at a multilateral meeting in Pakistan since Home Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to Islamabad for the SAARC Home Ministers meeting in August 2016.
Similarly, the last visit by an External Affairs Minister was of Sushma Swaraj in December 2015, before PM Modi's visit to Lahore in late August. After the terror attacks in Pathankot and Uri camps, the relations between India and Pakistan strained following the abrogation of Article 370, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status. Ever since India has refused to attend any meetings in Pakistan.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at the weekly press briefing earlier this month that Pakistan holds the rotating chairmanship of the SCO and in that capacity, it will be hosting the two-day meeting on October 15 and 16 for which leaders of the member nations have already been formally invited.
Bisaria said whenever India sends a commissary to Pakistan, for any bilateral engagement, that ball is completely in Pakistan's court. India has not said no to any bilateral engagement. It is Pakistan, which has taken the view that it would not like to engage, taking advantage of this multilateral conversation in case India sends a representative.
When asked if this is an indication of a thaw in the Indo-Pak relationship, the former High Commissioner said there have been mixed signals.
“It would be premature to label it as a thaw. For over a year, I have emphasized that following the elections in both Pakistan and India, there was an opportunity for potential reconciliation. However, due to multiple terrorism incidents in Jammu with clear involvement from Pakistan, it appeared that there was a disagreement within Pakistan between the military and civilians on engaging with India. The army's apparent inclination to perpetuate terrorism has placed the onus on Pakistan,” Bisaria said.
Commenting on the development, Dr Seshadri Chari, a commentator on foreign policy, strategy and security affairs, and Chairman of China Study Centre & Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies, DGIR, Manipal said, “New Delhi is likely to decide to attend the forthcoming SCO meeting to be held in Islamabad, for which it has been invited. Though India-Pakistan bilateral trade and talks have been suspended, the SCO being a multilateral platform, India might attend. This of course does not mean the resumption of bilateral talks. Pakistan downgraded its ties with India after the Indian Parliament abrogated Article 370 on August 5, 2019”.
“Both India and Pakistan were included as members of the SCO in 2017. Though India had reservations in being hyphenated with Pakistan as insisted by China, New Delhi finally accepted the offer to join the then seven-member organisation. With Belarus joining now it is a ten-member organisation mainly focusing on cooperation between member states in areas such as politics, trade, economy and security”, Chari said.
In 2023, India hosted the SCO Summit virtually which was attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Setting an example, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India in May 2023 to attend the SCO foreign minister's meeting in Goa--a first by any Pakistani Foreign Minister in 12 years. Though Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines, no bilateral talks were held.
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