Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari met and held meetings with his counterparts from Afghanistan, China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting. However, it has been reported that Bilawal and Indian FM Dr S. Jaishankar avoided handshake and the two ministers sat away from each other.
Bilawal attended the SCO meeting (July 28th to 29th) in Tashkent and this is where both he and Jaishankar came together since the Pakistani foreign minister took charge.
It is pertinent to mention that the SCO meeting is being held in connection with the preparations for the SCO Heads of State meeting scheduled to be held in September.
On the international platform, Bilawal said that there are no plans of any meetings between Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers (PM) in September, adding that “both India and Pakistan are part of the SCO and the two countries are only engaged in the context of the broad-based activities of the organisation”.
The foreign minister said: “India is our neighbouring country. While one can decide on a lot of things, one cannot choose its neighbours, therefore, we should get used to living with them.”
Bilawal recalled that after 2019, constructive dialogue with India became difficult, while statements based on Islamophobia by Indian officials are further creating hurdles in dialogue.
‘What is our fault if Khan failed to boost ties with US?’
Reacting to Imran Khan’s criticism that said Pakistan and the United States (US) relation has weakened during the tenure of the coalition government, the foreign minister said, “There is no truth in Imran Khan’s claims.”
“Khan tried to strengthen relations with Washington when he was in power,” he said and asked, “What was their fault if he failed to boost ties with the US?”
