Editorial: Temper expectations

It is highly unlikely that India and Pakistan will engage in bilateral talks of any kind on the sidelines of SCO summit

While the excitement in diplomatic circles over the upcoming visit of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to Pakistan to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is quite understandable, there is a need to temper the expectations in view of the harsh realities on the bilateral front. It is highly unlikely that the two countries would engage in bilateral talks of any kind on the sidelines of the SCO summit. When Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who was then Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, visited Goa last year to participate in the two-day meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers, there was no bilateral engagement between the two countries as the event was focused exclusively on the SCO activities. However, this time around, Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad, the first by a high-ranking Indian minister after a gap of nine years, serves as good optics for both countries. In 2015, then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj led the Indian delegation to the Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan held in Islamabad. While India chaired the SCO in 2023, Pakistan will host this year’s summit on October 15-16. The SCO is a valuable platform that should not be allowed to become a hostage to bilateral tensions. The meeting in Islamabad is being held at a time when Pakistan is gripped by political turmoil in the wake of protests by supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and massive restrictions are in place in the national capital to check rioting.

Apart from domestic instability, rising security concerns and economic crisis, Pakistan’s relations with India continue to be under severe strain. Instead of taking credible measures to dismantle terror infrastructure on its soil, Pakistan sought to interfere with India’s domestic affairs when it downgraded ties with New Delhi in 2019 following the abrogation of Article 370 that ended J&K’s special status. India has said it desires normal relations with Pakistan but the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such an engagement. In fact, the bilateral ties have been in deep freeze since the Pulwama terror attack and the retaliatory Balakot airstrikes of February 2019. India has been consistent in its stand that the resumption of bilateral dialogue is not possible until Islamabad stops supporting terrorism. Pakistani rulers must realise that their obsession with Kashmir will not lead them anywhere. Cross-border terrorism is the single most important issue that needs to be tackled for the normalisation of bilateral ties. The only option before it to resume dialogue with India is by uprooting terrorist groups. There is a growing realisation across the world that Pakistan has become a hub for global terror and that it continues to pursue the policy of using terrorism as an instrument of state policy to foment trouble in India.

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