Bilateral Talks Only if India Shows Interest, Say Pak Officials Ahead of Bilawal Bhutto Visit

There is no bilateral meeting on the current agenda of Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who will attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in India on May 4-5, sources told News18, adding that any such dialogue would be held “only if New Delhi shows interest”.

Bilawal Bhutto’s visit will be the first by a Pakistani foreign minister to India since Hina Rabbani Khar’s July 2011 visit. But while Khar’s visit was bilateral in nature, Bhutto will be in India to lead the Pakistani delegation at the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting in Goa.

“There are no bilateral meetings or talks scheduled with India. If New Delhi wishes to talk, Islamabad has no objection and can initiate talks for peace in the region,” a source in the Pakistani establishment said, adding that the Kashmir issue “will not be part” of the visit.

Sources added that Bilawal Bhutto will “focus on regional peace and trade”.

Bilawan Bhutto’s visit is also the highest-level visit to India by any Pakistani leader in recent years and a possible opportunity to break the ice between the two nations.

India-Pakistan ties came under severe strain after India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.

The relations further deteriorated after India announced the withdrawal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special powers and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into Union territories in August 2019.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Over the years, it has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations.

India and Pakistan became permanent members of the Beijing-based SCO in 2017.

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