Islamabad/New Delhi: Neighboring nations India and Pakistan have ruled out the possibility of bilateral talks with each other on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit beginning October 15. The summit will be attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who will lead a delegation to Islamabad. The visit holds significance as it will be the first by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in nine years, with the last being Sushma Swaraj's trip in 2015.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, when asked about Jaishankar's visit, said, "I would like you to refer to the remarks made by the Minister for External Affairs (Jaishankar) on October 5, in which he maintained that his visit was meant for a multilateral event and not for discussing Pakistan-India relations. These remarks are self-explanatory."
Last week, Jaishankar categorically said talks on India-Pakistan issues were not on the table during his visit to Islamabad on October 15 and 16. Addressing a gathering, Jaishankar said, "I am scheduled to go to Pakistan in the middle of this month, and that is for a meeting of the SCO Heads of Government... I am not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I am going there to be a good member of the SCO, but you know, since I am a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself."
Ties between India and Pakistan are at their lowest ebb after Islamabad downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi following the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. The relationship was already under strain after the Indian Air Force attacked a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in 2019 following the Pulwama terror attack, which killed over 40 soldiers.
