New Delhi: India has decided to turn down Pakistan's request for a bilateral meeting between their Foreign Minister Bilawal Zardari Bhutto and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa next month, ABP Live has learnt.
At a rudimentary level, both sides were planning to schedule a “brief talk” between Jaishankar and Bhutto in an effort to “break ice” before the SCO Head of States Summit that will be taking place in July for which India will be extending an invitation to their Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, according to multiple sources.
However, the sources added, that post the attacks on an Army truck last week in the Poonch district of Jammu in which five soldiers of Rashtriya Rifles got killed, New Delhi has decided to turn down all request even as it blames Pakistan for the incident which had allegedly been carried out Jaish-e-Mohammed affiliate People's Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF).
While India and Pakistan have been having dialogue to the extent of having an understanding on maintaining ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC), New Delhi has not been having formal talks with Islamabad since the 2016 Uri attack that was also purportedly carried out by JeM.
According to the sources, the back-channel talks have also been stalled in early 2021 but both sides continue to communicate through their respective High Commissions on urgent issues.
Since the abrogation of Article 370 that scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan then under former Prime Minister Imran Khan downgraded diplomatic ties that led to the recall of envoys from each other’s countries.
Taking a jibe at Pakistan due to the Poonch attacks, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Tuesday said, “It is very difficult for us to engage with a neighbour who practices cross-border terrorism against us. We've always said that they have to deliver on the commitment to not sponsor and carry out cross-border terrorism. We continue to hope that one day we would reach that stage.”
Pressure On Bilawal Bhutto To Cancel India Trip
Pakistan has already cancelled the visit of their Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif to India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meeting taking place on 28 April in New Delhi.
According to a source in the Pakistani government, pressure has also been building up on Foreign Minister Bhutto to participate in the upcoming SCO Foreign Ministers Meeting through video-conferencing. The SCO FMM will take place in Goa on May 5.
This will be the first visit by a Pakistani Foreign Minister to India since 2011. At that time, it was Hina Rabbani Khar who came to India as the then Foreign Minister. Post that in 2016, Pakistan former Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhury travelled to India on a hurricane trip.
“We are committed to the SCO charter and this visit should not be seen as a bilateral one but in the context of the SCO,” Bhutto reportedly said as the pressure on him began to rise to cancel the trip.
The SCO members are Russia, India, China, Pakistan, and four central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as its members. Iran is the newest member of the China-led grouping and under the Indian Presidency, Tehran will attend the all meetings as a full-fledged member.