KARACHI: Foreign Minister Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari has told Indian media that those who speak about talks and cross-border terror not going hand in hand will have to respond to what Kulbhushan Jadhav was doing on Pakistani soil.
The Pakistani foreign minister spoke with Indian media during his visit to Goa for the SCO summit. In interviews with India Today, The Hindu and BBC Hindi, the foreign minister articulated Pakistan’s stance on some key issues.
Other than these interviews, the Indian media, however, chose to focus on Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s vitriol directed at Pakistan and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari after the SCO Summit.
In conversations with the three Indian media outlets, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto spoke of terrorism, cooperation, bilateralism, India’s August 5 measures in Kashmir, and Pakistan’s economic challenges.
On bilateralism: Bilawal Bhutto told Indian media that his visit to Goa was “in the context of the SCO and exclusively for the SCO. As far as Pakistan’s bilateral relations with India, or our position post the August 5, 2019 actions in Kashmir, that has not changed.”
On his 2022 ‘Butcher of Gujarat’ statement: Talking to India Today, Bilawal said that he had used a term used by Indian citizens. He added in his interview to The Hindu that “I don’t think anything I said was personal and there’s nothing personal in diplomacy and in politics.”
On Kashmir: Asked about relations with India, the foreign minister told The Hindu and BBC Hindi that: “The onus is on India to create an environment conducive to talks. The Aug 5 actions by India were very serious and need to be reviewed. Without that, bilateral engagement will be difficult.” In another interview, he was quoted to have said that “There is genuine willingness on the Pakistan side, to address all issues and resolve all issues through dialogue. But the actions on August 5 really slammed the door shut on that process.... as soon as we return to the status quo of August 4, 2019 I believe we can engage in a meaningful dialogue.” The foreign minister also spoke of the UNSC resolutions: “There’s no expiry date on United Nations Security Council resolutions or an international law, and surely a country that calls itself the largest democracy in the world, would not shy away from a referendum for the public will of the people of Kashmir.”
On trade: “Trade or anything else can be something that, again, would be a result of a dialogue. And as far as Pakistan’s position is concerned, vis-a-vis a meaningful dialogue, that at the moment remains unchanged.”
On water: Speaking to The Hindu, Bilawal Bhutto said that “Pakistan firmly believes that water should not be weaponised...As far as the Indus Waters Treaty is concerned, it’s used as the gold standard the world over....Pakistan has concern over a couple of hydropower projects and through the existing treaty, we would like to resolve these concerns.”
On terrorism: Responding to questions regarding terrorism, the foreign minister told India Today that “This wolf whistling around the word terrorism, which is ultimately an Islamophobic wolf whistle, is not only to whip up the Hindu sentiment in India but also to browbeat Pakistan -- which certainly might be a good electioneering strategy but not an effective counterterrorism strategy.” On being asked about the Poonch incident in which Indian army soldiers were killed, he responded to both The Hindu and BBC Hindi: “I don’t think Pakistan has been blamed in any way by the Indian government or the Indian authorities. As far as terrorism is concerned, I condemn terrorism, Pakistan condemns terrorism. And I am personally a victim of terrorism. I empathize not only with every Pakistani who has suffered ,but any citizen across the world from India to the United States who have suffered at the hands of terrorists....Those who speak about talks and cross-border terror not going hand in hand will have to respond [to] what Kulbhushan Jadhav was doing on Pakistani soil....The Samjhauta express case where Pakistanis are still waiting for justice…. In New York, there was the Lahore attack dossier that I presented before the United Nations. So we have genuine concerns as well that do need to be addressed.”
On FATF: “I don’t know what list India is on or not. But I’m proud of the fact that Pakistan is the only country in the world to have simultaneously completed not one, but two FATF task lists, and that too before the timeframe that they had for us. That speaks to how seriously Pakistan is taking this issue.”
On IMF: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto called Pakistan’s challenge a “perfect storm” when asked by The Hindu about the IMF situation. “I don’t think there’s any question of us not being part of the program. We are taking the difficult, yet necessary decisions in order to be part of that programme. Pakistan is facing a unique sort of situation which I have described as a perfect storm. We have the Covid pandemic, a once in 100 years sort of crisis that we all went through together. Every economy on the planet is suffering. We add to that the fall of Kabul.... Then the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has economic consequences for the whole world.”
On Afghanistan: “We have serious reservations about the TTP and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, and we have condemned along with the rest of the Muslim world, the decision on women’s education and women’s rights. But we don’t believe that the solution to these problems is disengagement. And I believe that if we are able to achieve international consensus, isolate the security concerns coming out of Afghanistan from polarized partisan geopolitics, then we can work together to build a stable, prosperous Afghanistan.
On the handshake: Amidst intense social media scrutiny in Pakistan over the folded-hands greeting between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers, and musings in India over whether there was a handshake between the two, Bilawal Bhutto told India Today that “of course we shook hands. In all our unofficial engagements, we always shake hands”.
India’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s hate-filled press talk regarding Pakistan led to parts of the Indian media choosing headlines such as: “No Shake Hand, Only Namastey: EAM Jaishankar Greets Pakistan’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari at SCO meet” (News 18), while Times of India used a tweet by a PTI member to source a story it called: “Pakistan: Bilawal Bhutto’s SCO photo op, dubbed as a ‘rich kid’ moment, turns into perfect meme material”, quoting Pakistan’s opposition supporters’ tweets that disparaged Pakistan’s foreign minister in derogatory terms.
India’s right-wing media outlet Republic World took Indian hawk and anti-Pakistan analyst Major Gaurav Arya on a show, where he proceeded to say that Indian Minister Jaishankar’s vitriol directed at Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari was “the utter decimation” of Pakistan.
