– Dr. Sudeep Shukla
The foreign minister-level meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states concluded in Goa on Friday. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also participated in this two-day meeting which started from May 4 under the chairmanship and hospitality of India. Bilawal’s visit came amid the ongoing standoff between India and Pakistan. It should also be noted here that earlier in December itself, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan had spewed venom in the United Nations Organization under his anti-India agenda with his bias towards India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Actually, Pakistan is troubled because of its confused foreign policy. Because of this, it is unable to decide what kind of relations it should have with its mature neighbor in the role of a very powerful, global leader. Bilawal came to India after 12 years as a Pakistani foreign minister. Earlier in 2011, the then Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had come to India for peace talks.
Pakistan’s state sponsored terrorism from across the border, anti-India attitude and its ‘policy’ regarding Kashmir is not hidden from anyone. In such a situation, the process that was stopped for the last 12 years at the diplomatic level has definitely started, but nothing special seems to be achieved in the context of both the neighboring countries. Rather, it is believed that this will increase the bitterness in the already spoiled relations. A formal photo session during the meeting led to a situation where the Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan were face to face.
During this, the Indian Foreign Minister only greeted from a distance. Pakistan’s foreign minister also had to greet from a distance. Body language has its own separate and great importance in international diplomatic relations. Host India has given a clear message to the world community and especially to Pakistan. Thus there was no possibility of dialogue or improvement in relations in India even on this platform.
SCO is an intergovernmental multilateral organization with eight members. The organization was established on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of the founding member countries China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. These countries, except Uzbekistan, were formerly members of the Shanghai Five grouping, which was formed on 26 April 1996 with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Areas.
During the annual summit in Shanghai in 2001, the five member states included Uzbekistan for the first time, turning it into the Shanghai Six. The Declaration of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was signed on June 15, 2001. In July 2005, India and Pakistan were invited to the grouping as observer countries, later both countries were made permanent members of the SCO together at the Astana Summit in 2017. Diplomats associated with Pakistan’s foreign policy and diplomatic affairs still consider it a matter of pride that how they succeeded in becoming a member of this organization after a huge struggle. Now SCO has eight member countries including India, Pakistan.
SCO is seen as an alternative to NATO. The presidency of the SCO is handed over by the member states in a one-year rotation. At present, the responsibility of the chairmanship of the organization is with India. The presiding country organizes meetings etc. of the organization at its place, its formal invitation is sent to all the countries. Pakistan was also invited with the same vision. Accepting this, Bilawal reached Goa. It is worth mentioning that before this the Defense Minister level meeting has been held in which their Defense Minister was absent from Pakistan side.
Right now Pakistan is in a very bad condition on two major fronts. One is his well-known deteriorating economy, which is almost heading towards bankruptcy, while the other is the unstable condition of his government. In such a situation, Pakistan’s confused foreign policy is sometimes very close to China and sometimes it appears eager to get the old status of relations with America.
Bilawal Bhutto’s visit to India can be seen from the perspective that Pakistan wants to show the world including America that efforts are being made for reconciliation with India. In the changed circumstances, Pakistan wants to improve its position amidst India’s relation with America and all the major countries of the country. China is its friend and through this Pakistan is trying to get closer to Russia. At the same time, he has an eye on the restoration of business-commercial relations with India even if he doesn’t do it.
By doing this he can improve his sinking economy to a great extent but it is not that easy. Pakistan currently has a multi-party coalition government against Imran Khan, which has to go to the elections later. Pakistan’s political parties consider and use the anti-India and Kashmir melody as a formula to get votes. That’s why no one would like to take the ‘political risk’ of restoration of relations.
Pakistan’s army, which dominates the government, has also been resorting to the formula of ‘insecurity from India’ and ‘ready to answer’ to keep its position strong. Two such big incidents in the past indicate this. Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhary, Director General of the Public Relations Department of the Army (ISPR), had said anti-India things in his first press conference on 25 April.
Four days later, on April 29, while addressing the graduating officer cadets of the military academy at Kakul in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Army Chief General Asim Munir made provocative statements against India. At the end of his speech, General Munir had also said that he will not back down from making sacrifices for Kashmir and will continue to support Kashmiris. Both these provocative statements from the army came at the exact time when the government of Pakistan had agreed and announced about Foreign Minister Bilawal’s visit to the SCO meeting.
To reach Goa, Pakistan’s aviation department had sought passage permission from India’s air traffic controller on May 3, which was provided by India by late evening. After this, on May 4, he reached Goa by plane from Karachi. Earlier, he released a video on Twitter and talked about going to Goa for the SCO meeting.
In conclusion, he specially said that I look forward to constructive discussions with my counterparts from friendly countries of Pakistan. Despite all this, the SCO is a multilateral discussion group. There is no official bilateral talks etc. in this. It has also been said from the side of India that there will be a collective discussion on multilateral subjects of member countries in SCO. In such a situation, it is not right to have any special expectation from this visit of Bilawal, because in the current circumstances, it has nothing to gain.
Here, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, presiding over the meeting, raised the issue of terrorism prominently. He stressed that terrorism is not justified under any circumstances. Terrorism should be ended in all forms. Effective action is necessary to stop the economic logistics of terror. Talks cannot take place between the country that is a victim of terrorism and a country that nurtures terrorism. India’s apprehensions are also correct because when this meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was going on in Goa, five Indian soldiers were killed in an encounter with terrorists in the Kashmir Valley on Friday morning.
(The author is a freelance commentator.)
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