New Delhi, November 15 (IANS). Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Friday raised questions on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s recent visit to Pakistan. The Congress leader accused the External Affairs Minister of raising ‘false hopes’ of normalization of India-Pakistan relations.
Speaking to IANS, Aiyar questioned why External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar did not inform earlier about the nature of his visit to Islamabad.
The Congress leader said, “Why did Jaishankar tell Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar that India-Pakistan relations can be discussed later? Such statements only give rise to unnecessary expectations and uncertainty.”
Jaishankar had visited Pakistan on October 15, 2024, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, the first visit by an Indian minister to Pakistan in almost a decade.
During his two-day visit, Jaishankar held informal talks with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his counterpart Ishaq Dar, although there were no formal bilateral discussions.
The decision to send Jaishankar to Pakistan was widely seen as a move to reaffirm India’s commitment to the SCO.
The External Affairs Minister, in a public address, had stressed that India wants good relations with its neighbours, but ‘this cannot happen by ignoring cross-border terrorism.’ He also clarified that the purpose of his visit was not to discuss bilateral relations with Pakistan, but to engage in multilateral discussions at the SCO summit.
Jaishankar had said, ‘I have come here only to be a good member of SCO.’
Relations between the two countries have been in limbo since a failed attempt to restart the dialogue process in 2015. The situation worsened after Pakistan recalled its high commissioner following India’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
–IANS
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