Amid strained ties: Pakistan attends SCO counter-terror drills in India

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is presently attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) exercises being held in Manesar town of Haryana state, India from 8-13 October.

The country will also attend the SCO RATS council meeting on October 14 in Delhi. Unlike in the recent past amid the strained relations, the Pakistani officials will undertake many visits to attend different events in India after the SCO was shifted to India till 2023. India took over the presidency of SCO from Uzbekistan, where the last SCO summit was held.

The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) operates in accordance with the SCO charter, the Shanghai convention on combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, the agreement among the SCO member states on the RATS as well as documents and decisions adopted in the SCO framework.

In October, several events are being held in India under the SCO, where Director General Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asim Ali will be attending at least three events. Rai Muhammad Tahir, National Coordinator, National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) will be heading a seven-member delegation along with his wife.

Earlier, the Foreign Office spokesperson had confirmed that Pakistan would be attending the international counter-terrorism exercises in India. “Yes, there will be exercises under the ambit of SCO RATS in Manesar in October, and Pakistan as a member country will participate,” the spokesman confirmed.

Pakistan and India are part of the regional body that also includes China, Russia and Central Asian Republics (CARs). While Pakistan and Indian military contingents have taken part in the counter-terrorism exercises together, this will be the first time Pakistan will be attending such drills in India.

Previously, India had sent observers to a RATS exercise held in Pakistan. Meanwhile, on Sunday, the FO outrightly rejected what it said were unwarranted remarks by the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs regarding Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s joint press conference with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Berlin, where both of them talked about Kashmir and the role of the United Nations in finding a peaceful solution to the issue in accordance with the UN resolution.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had said: “Germany also has a role and responsibility with regard to the situation in Kashmir. Therefore, we support intensively the engagement of the United Nations to find peaceful resolutions in the region.”

Reacting to her remarks, EAM spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the global community had a responsibility to “call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature” in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

The FO spokesman, shrugging aside what the EAM spokesperson said, added that India manifested the desperation of a country that finds itself increasingly isolated on the issue of its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and the reprehensible human rights violations being perpetrated by its ruthless occupation force in the occupied territory.

The FO said that the two foreign ministers had highlighted the centrality of the Kashmir dispute and agreed that there was a role and responsibility of the international community as well as a need for intensified efforts from the UN with regard to a peaceful and just resolution of the issue.

“It must, however, realise that no amount of obfuscation will change the reality of its repression in the IIOJ&K. India’s credentials as a purveyor of state terrorism in the IIOJ&K and as an instigator of cross-border terrorism in Pakistan need no reiteration, the FO said.

“Hollow denials and evasion of responsibility will no longer cover up India’s mischievous strategy of posing as a ‘victim’ of terrorism while shifting blame elsewhere,” the FO added. It pointed to Pakistan’s contribution to the cause of counterterrorism which was globally acknowledged.

The FO called on the FATF to take note of India’s “irresponsible statement”. “Rather than making preposterous remarks about statements made by the foreign ministers, India should introspect, address the international community’s valid concerns and mend its conduct in the IIOJ&K,” the FO said.

“Pakistan urges the international community, particularly human rights and humanitarian organisations to condemn India’s barbaric state-terrorism in the IIOJ&K and ensure that Kashmiris are given their right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and as per their own wishes,” it added.

Meanwhile, a group of UN Disarmament Fellows comprising of officers from 24 countries, including Algeria, Angola, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iran, Libya, Montenegro, Palau, Poland, Saint Kits & Nevis, Togo, United States of America, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Yemen are on a visit to Pakistan from 8-10 October 2022 as part of their international study tour under the auspices of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). It is for the first time that Pakistan is hosting such an international study tour for the UN Disarmament Fellows.

The FO said the tour officially commenced with a visit of the fellows to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where they received a briefing on Pakistan’s perspective on arms control, disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation as well as the significance of unhindered access to dual-use technologies for peaceful socio-economic applications.

During the tour, the fellows will also be visiting Pakistan Centre of Excellence on Nuclear Security (PCENS), Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH), National Institute of Health (NIH), Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco), Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DESTO) and Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) to witness the application of nuclear and space technologies in the areas of public health, industry, agriculture, food security and power generation.

At the PCENS and PNRA, the fellows will receive briefings on Pakistan nuclear safety and security architecture, regulatory mechanisms and safeguards introduced by the government of Pakistan in line with global standards which have been recognised and acknowledged by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The fellows will also be visiting different laboratories, globally acknowledged reference libraries and state-of-the-art facilities at the DESTO and NIH.

At the Suparco, the participants will get acquainted with Pakistan’s space programme and its utility for the socio-economic development of the country. The UN Programme of Fellowships on Disarmament was launched by the General Assembly at its first special session devoted to disarmament in 1978.