Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who last week visited India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Goa, could not use the opportunity to ensure any kind of improvement in the ties between India and Pakistan. On the contrary, there were more signs of chill in the ties between the two neighbouring countries during Bilawal’s visit which triggered diplomatic face-off instead of exploring possibilities to restore normal diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Islamabad. Even as India made it clear that terror and talks cannot go together, Bilawal Bhutto still looked to be in denial mode on terrorism, signalling that Islamabad cannot give any guarantee of acting against terrorists conducting attacks against India from Pakistani soil. This is how Pakistan has been in denial mode since terror attacks took place in Mumbai. The Pakistani government never acted on the basis of evidence provided by India to punish the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. All the terrorists behind these attacks were present in Pakistan, and Islamabad continued to deny all the evidence shared by India. In what reaffirmed the perception about Bilawal being one of the irresponsible leaders of Pakistan, the Pakistani foreign minister criticised India for what he called “weaponising terrorism as a diplomatic tool”, triggering the sharpest verbal counter ever by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Bilawal’s comments were an indication of the fact that Pakistan is reluctant to address India’s core concern which is about combating and eliminating cross-border terrorism. Bhutto Zardari had asked not to get caught up in “weaponising terrorism for diplomatic point scoring”. Deplorably, Bilawal’s comments on Jammu and Kashmir and terrorism like this came in the wake of a series of terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir leading to death of Indian security personnel. Despite this, Bilawal Bhutto did not give any assurance that the government in Pakistan would deal with the terrorist organisations involved in these attacks. What was more deplorable and condemnable was that Bilawal tried to play down the terror attacks and started arguing that even Pakistan was also a victim of terrorism. To the annoyance of the Indian side, the Pakistani Foreign Minister said that India and Pakistan were in the same boat. Bilawal’s “misconducts”, therefore, forced Jaishankar to make sharp comments on the closing day of the SCO meeting. Jaishankar signalled that India is fed up with Pakistani leaders being in denial mode on terrorism which is being sponsored by various outfits active with the help evidently of state actors on the territories under Islamabad’s control. With this amount of provocation from Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Jaishankar’s reaction expressing massive displeasure over Pakistan-sponsored terror was quite understandable and natural as well. Jaishankar was right when he went to the extent of calling Bilawal a promoter, justifier and spokesperson of a terrorism industry. Jaishankar said that there can be no justification for terrorism and it must be stopped in all its forms and manifestations, including “cross-border terrorism”. Bilawal referred to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in what was seen as Pakistan’s attempt to win support of China during the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting. In fact, Bilawal apparently wanted the Chinese foreign minister to join him in making comments that could be embarrassing for India. The Pakistani Foreign minister said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) can be a force multiplier for regional connectivity. On this, Jaisnankar underlined that while connectivity is key to progress, it must come with respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all member states. For New Delhi, CPEC violates India’s territorial integrity since it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In another development that triggered an angry reaction from India, Bhutto at a separate press conference with Pakistani journalists in Goa said Delhi’s decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 had undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours. What he chose to ignore was the fact that terrorism being sponsored by Pakistan is actually spoiling the environment for talks. Bilawal’s conduct was self-explanatory that Pakistan is not interested in creating an environment that could be conducive for talks. He shut down the already dim hope of the SCO summit being used as a turning point for India-Pakistan relations. So, given all this, Bilawal Zardari’s visit failed to break the ice between the two countries so as to pave the way for resuming bilateral diplomatic dialogue.
T. BRAJE