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Days after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in an interview that the country desires peace with India and had learnt its lessons from three wars, India reportedly invited foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers' meeting in Goa in May, a report stated.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is said to have sent the invitation to Zardari through the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, as per The Indian Express.
Similar invitations have also been sent to China, Russia and Central Asian countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, which are all members of the SCO.
The invitation to Pakistan is being looked at as a significant development, especially considering that ties between the two neighbours are at a historic low.
Laying the groundwork for the talks, a senior official told The Indian Express:
While there is much optimism that the invitation will lead to an improvement in ties between the two countries, experts have pleaded caution.
AK Mohapatra, professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told The Quint that India as the host country extended an invitation to Pakistan as the latter is a member of the SCO, and New Delhi would not like to be seen as in an unfriendly light. Also, unless there are bilateral talks between India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the SCO, no progress in the relations can be expected.
He contested that the main obstacle to discussions with Islamabad remains its support to cross-border terrorism – an issue that India will absolutely not compromise with.
"From the Indian side, the issue of cross-border terrorism will be dominating the discourse. The Indian side definitely has the upper hand, and there is a possibility that the Indian side will be dictating terms. Whether the talks succeed will depend on to what extent Pakistan is ready to accept India's terms," he told The Quint.
What further complicates matters is the primacy of Pakistan's military in policy-making, its ideology surrounding the sovereign status of Jammu and Kashmir and the vehemence towards India's decision to abrogate Article 370.
"Unless Pakistan undergoes genuine democratisation, it is difficult to see a breakthrough. Because there will always be some political actors across the border that will try to divert the attention of the public rather than focus on their own weaknesses and limitations," Mohapatra added.
Ties between India and Pakistan have been on a downward trend since 2016, particularly since Pakistani-sponsored terror attacks in Pathankot (January 2016), Uri (September 2016), and Pulwama (February 2019).
India's decision to revoke the special status of J&K in August 2019 have also dented the relationship considerably, as it led to the downgrading of diplomatic relations, and a complete halt to trade and cross-border bus and train services.
Swaraj was also the last Indian external affairs minister to have visited Pakistan in December 2015 to attend the Heart of Asia conference.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
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