India
S Jaishankar slams Pakistan on terror, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari bilateral meet unlikely | India News
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NEW DELHI: It is very difficult to engage with a neighbour that practises cross-border terrorism, foreign minister S Jaishankar said ahead of the SCO meeting next week that will see a Pakistan foreign minister, the incumbent Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, visiting India for the first time since 2011.
Jaishankar’s condemnation of Pakistan’s use of cross-border terrorism, days after the attack on an army convoy in J&K that left five Indian soldiers dead, is being seen as an indication that a formal bilateral meeting with Bilawal on the margins of SCO is improbable.
Jaishankar will host Bilawal and his other Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) counterparts, including Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and China’s Qin Gang, for the foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa on May 5.
While bilateral meetings with others seem a certainty, there is no proposal yet for a similar meeting between Jaishankar and Bilawal. The possibility of a courtesy meeting between the two isn’t entirely ruled out, given that India is the host, but government sources said a “structured” bilateral is unlikely.
“As far as this meeting in concerned, we are both members of the SCO and we typically attend its meetings. We are the Chair this year and so the meeting is happening in India,” the minister further said.
“But the bottomline on this issue is that it is for us very difficult to engage with a neighbour who practises cross-border terrorism against us. We have always said they have to deliver on their commitment not to encourage, sponsor or carry out cross-border terrorism. We continue to hope that one day we would reach that stage,” Hhe added. His remarks came in response to a query on Builawal’s visit in a joint press briefing with Panama foreign minister Janaina Tewaney Mencomo in Panama City.
The government has maintained all along that the SCO invites to Pakistan ministers, including to PM Shehbaz Sharif for the summit in July, are a formality necessitated by the SCO Charter and should not be seen as an outreach to Pakistan. The SCO Charter will prevent Bilawal from raising the J&K issue in the foreign ministers’ meeting, but the Indian government will closely watch what he says before or after the meeting in any media interaction he might have.
Jaishankar’s condemnation of Pakistan’s use of cross-border terrorism, days after the attack on an army convoy in J&K that left five Indian soldiers dead, is being seen as an indication that a formal bilateral meeting with Bilawal on the margins of SCO is improbable.
Jaishankar will host Bilawal and his other Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) counterparts, including Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and China’s Qin Gang, for the foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa on May 5.
While bilateral meetings with others seem a certainty, there is no proposal yet for a similar meeting between Jaishankar and Bilawal. The possibility of a courtesy meeting between the two isn’t entirely ruled out, given that India is the host, but government sources said a “structured” bilateral is unlikely.
“As far as this meeting in concerned, we are both members of the SCO and we typically attend its meetings. We are the Chair this year and so the meeting is happening in India,” the minister further said.
“But the bottomline on this issue is that it is for us very difficult to engage with a neighbour who practises cross-border terrorism against us. We have always said they have to deliver on their commitment not to encourage, sponsor or carry out cross-border terrorism. We continue to hope that one day we would reach that stage,” Hhe added. His remarks came in response to a query on Builawal’s visit in a joint press briefing with Panama foreign minister Janaina Tewaney Mencomo in Panama City.
The government has maintained all along that the SCO invites to Pakistan ministers, including to PM Shehbaz Sharif for the summit in July, are a formality necessitated by the SCO Charter and should not be seen as an outreach to Pakistan. The SCO Charter will prevent Bilawal from raising the J&K issue in the foreign ministers’ meeting, but the Indian government will closely watch what he says before or after the meeting in any media interaction he might have.
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