New Delhi: While India maintains suspense over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s possible visit to Islamabad to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of heads of government meeting in October on Pakistan’s invitation, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Friday made it clear that the “era of uninterrupted dialogue” with Pakistan was over. He added that India was “not passive” and whether events with Pakistan take a positive or negative direction, either way, New Delhi will react as “actions have consequences”.
Mr Jaishankar was speaking at the release of a book Strategic Conundrum: Reshaping India’s Foreign Policy by former diplomat Rajiv Sikri on Friday where he briefly talked about India’s relations with Pakistan and China, saying that for any country in the world, neighbours are “always a conundrum”, and so are “major powers”.
India-Pakistan relations have been in cold storage since 2019, with no signs of a thaw. Though the two sides do meet at multilateral forums, the possibility of warm hugs and comfortable bilateral meetings is nowhere on the horizon as India accuses Pakistan of fostering terror in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. In this context, it is very unlikely that Mr Modi will travel to Pakistan for the SCO summit, though the possibility of his attending that in virtual mode cannot be ruled out. India had hosted the SCO summit in 2023 through the virtual mode, which Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif had attended through a video link.
Talking about the challenges in diplomacy, the minister said that major powers will be a conundrum since they are major, because of the breadth of their interests. “They will always have an agenda, which will overlap with us, but to differing degrees, also diverge,” said Mr Jaishankar. “In case of China, you have a double conundrum, because it’s a neighbour and a major power. So, the challenges with China fits this double definition,” he added.
Responding to Mr Sikri’s comment that India was perhaps content to continue at the current level of engagement with Pakistan, the EAM said: “Maybe yes. Maybe no”.
“What I do want to say is that we are not passive, and whether events take a positive or negative direction, either way, we will react,” he said while talking about India’s current relationship with Pakistan… I think the era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over. Actions have consequences, and insofar as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, I think (Article) 370 is done. So, the issue today is what kind of relationship can we possibly contemplate with Pakistan.”
Mr Jaishankar also said there was a debate in the neighbourhood about Saarc and Bimstec, and “all of you know the difference”. That is a contrast which illustrates some of the challenges and opportunities of “regionalisation”, he said.
“The real issue is that of overlapping identities versus forging new ones. So, everywhere there is history at play, but there is politics that often contests history and this in a way is a perennial challenge for India’s relationships with all its neighbours,” the EAM said.
