India needs to make environment conducive to talks: Bilawal

GOA/KARACHI: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said that the people of Pakistan and India want peace, stressing that New Delhi has to create a “conducive environment” for talks between the neighbouring nations.

He made the remarks while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Indian state of Goa. The visit by Bilawal to India is the first by a Pakistani foreign minister to Delhi in over a decade and has garnered a lot of media attention in both countries. The onus is on India to create a conducive environment for talks, said the foreign minister, adding that India’s decision to end the special status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours.

Bilawal said, however, that despite his rare visit to India, there was no change in the status of diplomatic relations. “India took illegal steps in August 2019 and violated the UN resolutions by its actions,” said the FM. The foreign minister retreated that Pakistan has a clear and solid stance on the Kashmir issue, highlighting that India’s “one-sided actions” have affected the terms between both countries. “India will have to revoke its August 5 decision,” he added. Bilawal further talked about the tensions between both countries surrounding sports and said that it should be separated from politics and foreign policy. The foreign minister, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said that he tried to send Pakistan’s cricket blind to India but they were not issued their visas. “Why is India afraid of Pakistan’s blind cricket team?” he questioned. “I have tried to Pakistan’s internal politics confined to its borders.” Bilawal also said that when Pakistan gets the chairmanship of SCO, it will also be able to organise a successful meeting.

Regarding being greeted with a Namaste by Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Bilawal said that welcoming each other like this was a “civilised” way. “In Sindh, we welcome each other like this,” The Indian External Affairs Minister also greeted other foreign ministers including China’s Qin Gang with a namaste on their arrival at the venue and there was no handshake. “Dr S Jaishankar never made me feel like our bilateral ties impacted our engagement at the SCO FM’s meeting,” said Bilawal.

Earlier addressing the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) summit, Bilawal Bhutto warned the member states against “weaponising terrorism for diplomatic point scoring” without naming India. “The collective security of our peoples is our joint responsibility. Terrorism continues to threaten global security. Let’s not get caught up in weaponising terrorism for diplomatic point scoring,” Bilawal said. The foreign minister emphasised that the idea of eradicating this menace requires not only a “comprehensive approach but also a collective approach”. He said that the root causes need to be addressed as well as the threats posed by specific groups. “It requires that we let this challenge unite us to fight it rather than divide us to become its victim. Our success requires us to isolate this issue from geo-political partisanship,” he maintained, adding that practical, pragmatic solutions exist for us to put an end to this chapter once and for all. “We must stop conflating non-state actors with state actors. Condemn all forms of terrorism including state-sponsored terrorism,” he stressed. Moreover, Bilawal on Twitter said “Tomorrow the FMs of China and Afghanistan will be visiting Pakistan where we will engage in bilateral meetings, followed by a trilateral meeting between our three countries,” the finance minister added. Earlier, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, prior to Bilawal’s speech, said the menace of terrorism continues unabated, adding that taking eyes off this menace is detrimental to the security interests of all. Jaishankar told reporters after the conference “Pakistan´s credibility is depleting faster than its foreign reserves.” Bhutto’s address “reveals the mindset of that country”, he added. “His position was found out and called out.”

Later addressing a press conference in Karachi, on return from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Goa, Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has made it clear that there is no change in the principled stand of Pakistan on the Kashmir issue and bilateral ties with New Delhi as he went to India to present Pakistan’s case on this issue.

The foreign minister said that he successfully highlighted the Kashmir cause on the Indian land. Bilawal made it clear that his latest visit to India was aimed at presenting Pakistan’s standpoint and case (on Kashmir issue) as he had undertaken quite a successful trip to the neighbouring country. He clarified that there is no change in Pakistan’s stance on the Kashmir issue and bilateral ties with India. Bilawal said that despite facing the restriction in India of not raising the bilateral disputes between the two countries, he raised in the neighbouring country whatever issue he deemed necessary. To a question, Bilawal said that he had succeeded in presenting Pakistan’s standpoint in the SCO meeting in India. “Our principle stance is that no progress on the bilateral relations (with India) could take place till India withdraws its decision (about Kashmir) of August 2019,” said the Foreign Minister.

He said that it was the policy of the Indian outfits, BJP and RSS, to blame the Muslim countries on the issue of terrorism. Bilawal said that the PPP nominated its candidates from the Hindu community to become members of the National and provincial assemblies in Pakistan but he was surprised that no lawmaker of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in both the upper and lower house of the Indian Parliament is Muslim.

Bilawal told media persons that he was immediately leaving for Islamabad where he would meet the Foreign Ministers of China and Afghanistan. “It is my faith that peace is our ultimate destination as if not today then tomorrow we will surely achieve this goal,” he said. He said that it was a big achievement for Pakistan that the Kashmir issue was raised on Indian land. Whatever statements were given by the Indian Minister of External Affairs were according to his own will as their (Indian’s) sense of insecurity is reflected in their criticism, he said.

Bilawal said that the political party to which the Indian External Affairs Minister belonged indulged in false propaganda. “It is their attempt to prove that every Pakistani is a terrorist as their false propaganda would die if they didn’t do such a thing,” said the Foreign Minister. “Whereas it is not the case because the entire world has recognised Pakistan as the country most affected by terrorism,” he said. They (the Indians) are angry as Pakistan objected to their narrative, he said.

He said the political parties didn’t announce the heady money (to kill opponents) as the BJP did such a thing as one should know whether BJP is a political party or a terrorist outfit.“The head money was also announced for him in India but we will not budge on our standpoint and ideology,” he added.