Ahead of his visit to Pakistan for the SCO Heads of Government meeting on October 15-16, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said he is not going to Islamabad to discuss “India-Pakistan relations” but to attend a multilateral event. He said he is travelling to Pakistan only to be a “good member of the SCO”.
“Yes, I am scheduled to go to Pakistan in the middle of this month and that is for the meeting of the SCO –the heads of government meeting,” the minister said after delivering the Sardar Patel Lecture on Governance. “I expect that there would be a lot of media interest because the very nature of the relationship is such and I think we will deal with it. But I do want to say I will be there for a multilateral event, I mean I am not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I am going there to be a good member of the SCO. Since I am a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself accordingly,” he emphasised.
Asked about his planning for the SCO meet, Mr Jaishankar said, “Of course, I am planning for it. In my business, you plan for everything that you are going to do, and for a lot of things that you are not going to do, and which could happen also, you plan for that as well.” He emphasised that his participation would be focused on the multilateral nature of the event.
He also pointed out that the SAARC regional grouping of South Asian countries is not progressing and its meetings have not been held in recent years. This is primarily due to one member engaging in cross-border terrorism against at least one other member. He stressed that this situation makes it difficult for SAARC to function normally. Mr Jaishankar made it clear that terrorism is something that is unacceptable, noting that if one of the neighbours continues to do it, there cannot be business as usual in SAARC.
Earlier, delivering his address, Mr Jaishankar claimed that Sardar Patel was opposed to going to the United Nations on the Jammu and Kashmir issue. ”Sadly, for all of us and for the nation, his caution was disregarded. An India lulled by a sense of false internationalism was set up by the United Kingdom, ably assisted by Belgium, Canada and the US. What began as the ‘Jammu and Kashmir Question’ was conveniently changed to the ‘India-Pakistan Question’, putting the two at par with each other and with attendant implications. It took us a quarter century to then settle the matter,” he added.