By: ShubhamGhosh
PAKISTANI foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Monday (3) that the country is ready to host the 19th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Summit and neighbour India can join virtually if New Delhi is not willing to send representatives to attend the event physically.
Speaking in a press conference to highlight the Pakistani foreign affairs ministry in 2021, Qureshi accused India of making SAARC dysfunctional through its stubbornness by refusing to attend the meeting in the Pakistani capital.
“I reiterate the invitation for the 19th SAARC Summit. If India is not ready to come to Islamabad, it can join virtually… but it should not stop others from attending the moot,” he said.
SAARC — a regional grouping comprising, besides Pakistan and India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Formed in 1985, the SAARC has seen only 18 summits held so far with the last one taking place in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2014. One of the major reasons that has hindered the regional body’s progress is the enmity between two of its largest members – India and Pakistan.
The 2016 edition of the summit (which is supposed to be held biennially) was originally planned to be held in Islamabad in November 2016 but India refused to attend it due to “prevailing circumstances” following a terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year.
The summit was eventually scrapped after other members such as Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan (which was then ruled by a West-backed and India-friendly regime) also refused to take part.
Noting that there was change in relations with India in 2021, Qureshi said the alleged dominance of “Hindutva thinking” in India for disrupting the prospects of positive ties between the two South Asian neighbours.
“Unfortunately, ties with India in 2021 were frozen. In our view, the potential of regional cooperation has been hit by aggressive Hindutva behaviour in recent years,” he said.
The Pakistani foreign minister said Islamabad wanted peaceful ties with all its neighbours, including India, but the onus was on India for improving the relations.
Qureshi also said that peace with India was not possible till the Kashmir issue was resolved.
The bilateral ties between Pakistan and India received a further blow after New Delhi withdrew the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two union territories in August 2019.
India has told Pakistan that it wants to have a normal neighbourly relation with the neighbouring country in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.
Qureshi also spoke in detail on Islamabad’s ties with the rest of the world and said that political, economic and diplomatic relations with the entire world got better in 2021, including powers such as the US, Russia and China.
He also mentioned that Pakistan’s ties with Bangladesh were getting better and Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has spoken with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina. He said Khan has invited the latter to visit Pakistan and she also sent him an invite to visit Bangladesh.
To a question on the reported ‘Cold War’ between the US and China, Qureshi said Pakistan’s policy was clear which is not to become a “part of any camp”.
Responding to another question on removal of fencing by the Taliban forces on Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Qureshi said Pakistan carried out the fencing work and was aware of the latest incidents (of its removal) while adding that “Afghanistan is our friend and we will be able to resolve it”.
Qureshi’s remarks on the SAARC summit came after Khan last month expressed hope that his country would host the much-delayed meeting when the “artificial obstacle” created in its way is removed.
The prime minister made the remarks during his meeting with SAARC’s secretary-general Esala Ruwan Weerakoon, who paid a courtesy call on the former in Islamabad.
