Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Cooperation in areas like trade, energy, and connectivity is unlikely to flourish if cross-border activities are characterized by terrorism, extremism, and separatism, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Wednesday in Islamabad, in a thinly veiled message to Pakistan.
“If activities across borders are characterized by terrorism, extremism, and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity, and people-to-people exchanges in parallel,” he added, according to the media reports on Wednesday.
Addressing the two-day conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), he also asserted that cooperation must be based on mutual respect and sovereign equality and should recognize nations’ territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The EAM led the Indian delegation at the 23rd SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) Summit in Islamabad which Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired.
Dr. Jaishankar said trust was key for cooperation and the SCO member nations can benefit immensely if the grouping moves ahead collectively.
Cooperation must be based on mutual respect and sovereign equality.
“It should recognize territorial integrity and sovereignty. It must be built on genuine partnerships, not unilateral agendas. It cannot progress if we cherry-pick global practices, especially of trade and transit,” he said, in remarks seen as an indirect reference to China’s assertive behavior on key issues.
“Our endeavors will progress only when our commitment to the (SCO’s) Charter remains firm. It is axiomatic that development and growth require peace and stability. As the Charter spelled out, this means being firm and uncompromising in countering the ‘three evils’,” Dr. Jaishankar said.
He also stressed the need for comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council to ensure the representation of developing countries. He noted that the SCO should advocate for this change, promoting a more representative, inclusive, and democratic UNSC.
It is the first time in nearly nine years that India’s EAM traveled to Pakistan even as the ties between the two neighbors remained tense over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terror emanating from Islamabad.
Pakistan had assumed the rotating chair of the SCO CHG for 2023-24 at the previous meeting held in Bishkek on October 26, 2023, where the country was represented by then Interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani.
The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organization established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan joined it later.
Earlier, former Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri described Dr. Jaishankar’s trip to Islamabad as a ‘positive step’, suggesting it could help ease tensions between the two nations.
This statement followed the EAM’s comments dismissing the likelihood of bilateral talks during his visit.