NEW DELHI: For the primary time in 9 years, an Indian overseas minister will journey to Pakistan with the government confirming Friday that S Jaishankar will symbolize India on the SCO heads of govt assembly in Islamabad on Oct 15-16.
TOI had first reported on Aug 25 that Pakistan had invited PM Modi for the assembly. Nonetheless, with Modi’s participation in SCO restricted to the heads of state summit, the important thing query all the time was whether or not he would nominate Jaishankar, who has participated in the identical conferences previously.India additionally had the choice to ship a junior minister or take part just about.
Not a lot ought to be learn into min’s Pak journey: MEA
International minister Jaishankar’s go to to Pakistan later this month, though it is for SCO summit and cannot be seen as a peace outreach, opens the opportunity of a uncommon high-level go to from India to Islamabad at a time when ties stay downgraded for the reason that revocation of particular standing of J&Okay in Aug 2019.
The choice to ship Jaishankar is critical as India had the choice of sending a junior minister or collaborating just about. Jaishankar had mentioned lately that India shouldn’t be passive on Pakistan and can react accordingly to each optimistic and unfavourable developments. Whether or not or not there is a bilateral assembly with Pakistan overseas minister Ishaq Dar is more likely to rely extra on the host.
India’s final excessive commissioner to Pakistan, Ajay Bisaria, mentioned the ball is now firmly in Pakistan’s court docket as by sending Jaishankar India has made a daring transfer, signalling its want to stabilise this troubled relationship. “Pakistan should seize this chance and because the host suggest a significant bilateral dialog on SCO sidelines. An excellent place to begin for each nations could be to seize some low-hanging fruit – exchanging excessive commissioners and reviving commerce ties,” he mentioned.
Whereas saying Jaishankar’s participation, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal mentioned the go to was about SCO and never a lot ought to be learn into it. The go to additionally underscores the importance India attaches to the Eurasian bloc.
Regardless of the Chinese language predominance, and efforts to place it as an anti-West discussion board, SCO stays an necessary platform for India to construct ties with resource-rich central Asia and deal with points associated to regional safety and assert its strategic autonomy
Curiously, as overseas secretary, Jaishankar had accompanied then Union overseas minister Sushma Swaraj when she visited Pakistan in 2015 for Coronary heart of Asia – Istanbul Course of talks.
