Diplomats say Pakistan delegation did its job at SCO moot

KARACHI: Pakistan’s decision to attend the SCO summit in Goa was correct, this was not a bilateral visit, and India clearly stuck to its familiar script regarding Pakistan, say former diplomats and foreign policy experts. 

In a comment to The News, former diplomat Salman Bashir who has also served as Pakistan’s high commissioner to India, says that the decision to attend the SCO meet was the correct one: “ I think we made our point of being present at an important SCO event. The Pakistan delegation did its job and should be returning satisfied.”

Former ambassador Javid Husain, who has served in China in the 80s, explains: “FM Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s visit to Goa was primarily to attend the meeting of SCO foreign ministers. It enabled our foreign minister to put across Pakistan’s point of view on issues of security, development, regional connectivity, CPEC, Afghanistan, climate change, Kashmir and terrorism during the conference deliberations, media comments, and meetings.” He adds that the foreign minister’s visit “highlighted the high importance attached by Pakistan to the SCO.”

Director Programs at Jinnah Institute Salman Zaidi, whose work has focused on Track 2 diplomacy, agrees on the clarity of vision that led Pakistan to attend the SCO summit, saying that “Pakistan must never give up platforms to which it is a member, and it is to the credit of our foreign policy establishment that a decision was taken to attend the SCO summit, despite the known challenges.”

Pakistan’s presence at the summit also speaks to changing geopolitical realities and the visit to Goa is -- in a larger context -- of benefit to Pakistan. This is something Zaidi too points to in his remarks to The News: “global leaderships are adapting to rapid geopolitical changes. Not only should Pakistan’s presence be marked at such forums, it also stands to gain from diplomatic opportunities to address challenges and leverage its strategic advantages.”

Pakistan’s former representative to the UN and twice ambassador to the US Dr Maleeha Lodhi says that there were no surprises in the SCO visit by Pakistan: “The visit went according to the script. No surprises. Both countries reiterated their positions and that meant [that], far from the ice melting between the two countries, the atmosphere was further vitiated -- ruling out any forward movement in their troubled relations.”

Dr Lodhi may be pointing to the way India sought to respond to Pakistan right after the SCO summit -- Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar choosing to lash out at Pakistan and its foreign minister. Speaking to Indian media at a press conference held after the end of the summit, the Indian minister called Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari “a promoter, justifier, and I’m sorry to say, spokesperson of a terrorism industry which is the mainstay of Pakistan”.

Salman Bashir says that “Jaishankar’s rhetoric against Pakistan was really not called for. But that is usual in such situations... I think the main thing is that the Indians are not prepared to engage with Pakistan at this point. And that is fine by us, I suppose.”

This is not an isolated view. Javid Husain too feels that “No breakthrough in India-Pakistan relations was expected -- and none took place.” He says that the comments by Jaishankar “clearly showed India’s intransigence and its refusal to create a climate conducive to putting Pakistan-India relations on a positive trajectory. Apparently India is determined to exploit Pakistan’s current political instability and economic weakness to further its anti-Pakistan and hegemonic designs in the region. [Jaishankar] also underscored New Delhi’s refusal to show any flexibility on the Kashmir issue which is an indispensable condition for its peaceful settlement.”

Calling the Indian behaviour “unfortunate”, Salman Zaidi is of the opinion that despite the “expected vitriol from Indian officials” Pakistan can still “claim its rightful stake on foreign affairs, especially regional issues”. To him, “India’s posture on Pakistan is not unexpected. The talking points are familiar, and the tired script on terrorism has once again been put to creative use. FM Jaishankar reserved his choicest vitriol for Pakistan, which will not suit the top diplomat of any host country, but Jaishankar is more ideologically committed to anti-Pakistan rhetoric than any of his predecessors.”

For Mosharraf Zaidi, political analyst and foreign policy commentator, “It was an excellent visit. It helped prompt a diatribe by the Indian foreign minister -- exposing India’s inability to rise to the occasion and engage w multilateral fora at the level expected of a regional power.”

Salman Zaidi agrees, adding that “the Indians are out of ideas on how to deal with Pakistan or Kashmir, much as they would like to emphasize neither issue is relevant.

In a tweet, former diplomat Abdul Basit, who has also served as Pakistan’s high commissioner to India, says he is impressed by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s interview to Indian Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai, and that the foreign minister “was particularly superb on Kashmir. Glad he also raised [the issues of] Kulbhushan Jhadav and Samjhota Express blast. The way Jaishankar reacted in his press conference only reflected his hubris and frustration.”

Tweeting about the goings-on in Goa South Asia Institute Director at The Wilson Center Michael Kugelman sums up the Pakistani foreign minister’s SCO sojourn: “There was much criticism of the Pakistan FM’s visit to India for SCO, but he appears to have accomplished what Islamabad sought: Participation in the SCO deliberations, and separate sideline meetings with all SCO members except India. Multilateral engagement [with bilaterals] on the side.

“There is a word of caution here though by Ambassador Javid Husain who feels that: “The moral is that Pakistan must stabilize itself politically and strengthen itself economically and technologically to be able to play a more effective role in the management of its foreign affairs.”