External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday clarified that he will not hold a dialogue with Pakistan during his upcoming visit to the country to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) conclave.
The External Affairs Minister said that he is traveling 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. Normally the Prime Minister goes to the high-level meeting, the heads of state, that’s in line with the tradition. It so happens that the meeting is taking place in Pakistan, because, like us, they are a relatively recent member,” Jaishankar said at the sidelines of an event at the national capital.
“But, you know, since I’m a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself accordingly,” Jaishankar added.
#WATCH | Delhi: On his upcoming visit to Pakistan to attend the SCO summit, EAM Dr S Jaishankar says, “…It (visit) will be for a multilateral event. I’m not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I’m going there to be a good member of the SCO. But, you know, since I’m… pic.twitter.com/XAK2Hg3qSX
— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2024
The minister also took a veiled dig at Pakistan, holding it responsible for the derailment of the SAARC initiative.
“At the moment SAARC is not moving forward, we haven’t had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason – there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross-border terrorism at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more… Terrorism is something which is unacceptable and despite a global view of it if one of our neighbours continues to do it – there cannot be business as usual in SAARC. That’s the reason why the SAARC meeting has not happened in recent years – but it doesn’t mean that the regional activities have stopped. In fact, in the last 5-6 years, we have seen far more regional integration in the Indian subcontinent,” he added.
#WATCH | Delhi | EAM S Jaishanka says, “At the moment SAARC is not moving forward, we haven’t had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason – there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross-border terrorism at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more… Terrorism… pic.twitter.com/ILGuy7ZTXe
— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2024
