Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari reached Goa yesterday to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM). India is hosting the foreign ministers of SCO member-states for the two-day long CFM in Goa on May 4-5. Amidst a polarized and politically tense domestic situation, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has supported Pakistan's SCO visit, saying that Bilawal’s visit reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO Charter and multilateralism and that Pakistan is committed to playing its part for peace and stability in the region. It must be remembered that China and Russia have key positions within the SCO and this visit shows Pakistan’s commitment to one of the most important regional organizations. Given the Russia-Ukraine war and the reported drone attack on the Kremlin, as well as the American stance on China's growing power, the SCO moot becomes all the more important.
While all eyes will be on the SCO, media reports from India suggest that the focus there is more on Bilawal Bhutto. The Pakistani foreign minister’s maiden visit to India for the SCO meeting has evoked quite an interest not just in Pakistan but in India too for a number of reasons. This is the first visit of a Pakistani foreign minister in nearly 12 years to India. However, it is important to stress that this is a multilateral visit and not a bilateral one. Political and regional experts say that a bilateral meeting between Bhutto and his Indian counterpart is not on the cards due to tensions between the two sides and in particular in the aftermath of Bilawal’s remarks last year at the UN where he – rather justifiably – called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi the “butcher of Gujarat”. This is why it was all the more surprising to see hawkish PTI leaders attacking the PDM government and in particular Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari for visiting India. Encouragingly, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi took a different position from his own party members by saying that there was nothing wrong with Bilawal visiting India since the SCO is an important forum. As a former foreign minister, Qureshi understands why this visit is important given the regional realities. Do PTI leaders not want Pakistan to be part of regional alliances? Is the country supposed to stay isolated till its political parties sort out the mess they have created?
Pakistan is a close ally of China and is also looking to import oil and gas from Russia. The foreign minister’s visit can thus set a way forward for the upcoming SCO Leaders’ Summit scheduled to take place in July in New Delhi, as 15 key decisions are up for discussion at the CFM. These decisions are expected to play an important role in shaping the agenda for the heads of states’ visit. There’s potential for unplanned developments, chance corridor meetings etc. Meanwhile, analysts on both sides of the border agree that, while Bilawal Bhutto's visit may not be a miracle cure to all that affects Pakistan-India ties, it is of a significance that cannot be ignored. The potential this SCO visit then holds – for multilateral deals, for thinking further about bilateral ties, for Pakistan making use of such a forum for unplanned and chance corridor meetings – warrants the presence of the foreign minister there. Those saying otherwise are once again falling to myopic politics rather than pragmatic foreign policy thinking.