Jaishankar: Going for multilateral event, not to discuss India-Pak ties

The External Affairs Minister highlighted that the SCO Summit is taking place in Islamabad this time, because, similar to India, Pakistan too, is a recent member of the bloc.

“Normally the Prime Minister goes to the high-level meeting, the heads of state, that’s in line with the tradition. It so happens that the meeting is taking place in Pakistan, because, like us, they are a relatively recent member,” Jaishankar added.

On being asked about his planning before he heads to the summit, the EAM stated, “Of course, I am planning for it. In my business, you plan for everything that you are going to do, and for a lot of things that you are not going to do, and which could happen also, you plan for that as well.”

In August this year, Pakistan, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the SCO CHG, said it had extended invitations to all heads of government of the SCO member states, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for the meeting in Islamabad.

This will be the first visit to Pakistan by an External Affairs Minister in nine years – Sushma Swaraj led the Indian delegation to the Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan that was held in Islamabad on December 8-9, 2015.

Framing India’s approach, the External Affairs minister said that “India would certainly like to have (a) good relationship, but that cannot happen by overlooking cross-border terrorism and indulging in wishful thinking.”

Responding to questions on SAARC, he said that “at the moment SAARC is not moving forward, we have not had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason that there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross border terrorism, at least against one more member, maybe more. Now… if you’re all sitting together and cooperating, and at same time, you know this kind of terrorism go(ing) on openly, it actually poses a challenge that do you ignore it and go ahead and, in which case, you are normalizing it, you are accepting that this is a legitimate tool of statecraft. And, I think at some point, we came to the decision that we should not do this…that you know…terrorism is…unacceptable.”

“And if, despite a global view of it, if one of our neighbours continues to do it, then there must be a cost. It cannot be business as usual in SAARC,” he said.

On China, he said bilateral ties are “at crossroads.” “The present situation does not serve the interests of either nation. There is a way forward, and that is by reinstating peace and tranquility in the border areas, respecting the LAC, and not seeking to change the status beyond that.”

He underlined the three mutuals — mutual respect, mutual sensitive, mutual interest — and after all, “the rise of Asia can only happen when India and China have a positive dynamic”.

On West Asia, he said that the situation in the “Middle East is a positive concern, deep worry,… the conflict is widening.”

“What we saw was a terrorist attack, then the response, then we saw what happened in Gaza. Now you’re seeing it… an exchange between Israel and Iran, the Houthis firing on the Red Sea. It is actually costing us. It’s not that somebody is neutral and you benefit…shipping rates have gone up, insurance, export, foreign trade is being affected. Oil prices have gone up yesterday. Day before yesterday, the markets tanked after the Iranian missile attack. So, conflicts can be opportunistically used. I don’t deny that but I think in a globalized world which is so tight, conflict anywhere actually creates problems everywhere…honestly today, whether it is the conflict in Ukraine or the conflict in the Middle East, West Asia, these are big factors of instability, big factors of concern. I think the entire world, including us, we are worried, and we are trying to see at least where we can make a difference and do what we can,” Jaishankar said.