close
close

Why S Jaishankar’s Pakistan visit for SCO meets matters – Firstpost

Posted on by darion

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar will lead India’s delegation at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Heads of Government (HoG) meeting in Pakistan on October 15-16. This is the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in a decade.

“The external affairs minister will lead our delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO Summit, which will be held in Islamabad on October 15-16,” Ministry of External Affairs
(MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told journalists on Friday (October 4).

Pakistan had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the conference.

What is SCO? Why has India decided to send EAM Jaishankar to Islamabad for the conference? Let’s understand.

What’s SCO?

In 1996, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan formed the “Shanghai Five”.

The fall of the USSR, or Soviet Union, in 1991 gave birth to 15 independent countries. However, it also led to concerns about extremist religious groups and ethnic tensions. To address these issues, the grouping was formed to cooperate on security matters.

The SCO was established on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai as an intergovernmental international organization by the five previous members and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined the bloc in 2017.

Besides these countries, Iran and Belarus are also member states. Afghanistan and Mongolia are observer states.

The organization discusses security and economic matters in Central Asia. Russia and China, who dominate the grouping, portray SCO as a countermeasure to a “Western” international order.

The Eurasian bloc has become a battleground for Beijing and its ally Moscow over who wields more influence at the forum.

Jaishankar to attend SCO meet in Pakistan

The MEA ended the suspension over India’s participation in the SCO meeting in Islamabad on Friday.

The announcement of Jaishankar’s visit comes at a time when relations are strained between India and Pakistan.

The MEA said that the trip was “mainly” for the SCO meeting, given India’s focus on “regional cooperation mechanisms”, reported The Hindu.

The ministry has not clarified whether the EAM will hold bilateral talks with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said “no clear idea at this point of time” on bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO gathering.

“This visit is for the SCO Summit meeting, nothing more should be read into it,” he was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times (HT).

The SCO Council of Heads of Government is the second highest decision-making body of the multilateral organization. PM Modi usually participates in the SCO summit or the meeting of heads of state.

So far, New Delhi has not sent any ministers to SCO gatherings in Pakistan, including Trade Ministers’ meeting last month.

Officials told The Hindu that EAM’s visit was based on “reciprocity”, as Pakistan’s then Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had traveled to Goa to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting last May.

India’s last high commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria told HT that New Delhi made a “bold move” with its decision to send Jaishankar for the SCO meeting. “India has signaled its desire to stabilize the troubled relationship by sending its foreign minister to the SCO meet. “The ball is now in Pakistan’s court and it must seize the opportunity and propose a meaningful bilateral meeting,” he said.

In August, Jaishankar said, “I think the era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over. “Actions have consequences.”

He said New Delhi is not “passive” on Pakistan and will “react” to both positive and negative developments.

The last Indian External Affairs Minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj in 2015 for the Heart of Asia conference and talks with senior Pakistani leaders.

Rajnath Singh, the then home minister, headed the last high-level ministerial visit to Pakistan for the South Asian Association for Region Cooperation (Saarc) in August 2016.

What SCO means for India

India sending EAM Jaishankar to Pakistan despite tensions between the two neighbors shows the importance it attaches to the SCO grouping. This comes even as New Delhi has not attended the Saarc summit due to be held in Pakistan since 2016.

The SCO offers a platform to New Delhi to enhance cooperation with resource-rich Central Asian countries. India has not had close ties since these nations were formed in 1991.

India has also exhibited the significance it gives to the grouping. Speculations arose over New Delhi’s commitment to the Eurasian bloc after PM Modi skipped the 24th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kazakhstan in July, noted Times of India (TOI).

For India, the SCO is a key forum to address regional security issues and uphold its strategic autonomy, according to the newspaper. India is the only country in the grouping to not endorse China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The SCO’s Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) also helps India’s foreign policy to combat terrorism. It facilitates member states to prepare and stage counter-terrorism exercises, examine key intelligence information from the member states, and share inputs on terrorist movements and drug trafficking, reported Indian Express.

As the newspaper noted, the SCO displays India’s diplomacy in Eurasia. “If the SCO is a bipolar China-Russia platform, it offers several multipolarities within as other members leverage their strengths to get the best deal for themselves,” according to Indian Express.

An official told The Hindu that the Heads of Government meeting is an unmissable opportunity for India to interact with the Prime Ministers of several Central Asian states and high-level dignitaries from other members of the grouping. It will also prepare the ground for PM Modi’s participation in the BRICS Summit to be held in Russia later this month, as many countries are members of both groupings.

But despite the high-level visit, not many are betting that it would revive peace talks between the rival neighbors – India and Pakistan.

With inputs from agencies