At SCO summit, India, Pakistan squabble over Kashmir, ‘terrorism’

 

  As the fallout from a recent heated exchange between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan continues to play out in the public sphere, analysts say both officials put up a “performance” for their respective domestic audiences.

During his visit to India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari urged member nations to avoid using “terrorism” as a diplomatic instrument.

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“Terrorism continues to threaten global security,” the foreign minister said during his address at the SCO. “Let’s not get caught up in weaponising terrorism for diplomatic point scoring.”

He also criticised India’s decision to scrap the special status of the disputed region of Kashmir, saying New Delhi’s unilateral move in 2019 had undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours.

“The onus is on India to create a conducive environment for talks,” Bhutto Zardari said.

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar took strong exception to Bhutto Zardari’s statement, calling him the “spokesperson of a terrorism industry”.

The two countries did not hold any bilateral talks during the summit, which was also attended by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Russia and Uzbekistan.

Two days after the summit’s conclusion and Bhutto Zardari’s return to Pakistan, the Indian foreign minister continued to engage in indirect criticism by saying “he [Bhutto Zardari] spoke about everything, including India’s role in Kashmir, the G20, India’s foreign policies except the finer details of the meeting he was invited for.”

As the host nation for the summit, India’s Hindu nationalist government reluctantly invited Bhutto Zardari, who became the first Pakistan foreign minister to visit India in 12 years amid heightened tensions between the neighbours, who have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.

Analysts say the indirect public exchange between the two officials has been “entirely on expected lines”.

“Both foreign ministers were more worried about the internal politics in their own countries than making any progress on issues concerning their foreign policies,” Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at India’s Centre for Policy Research, told Al Jazeera.

 Bhutto Zardari said his country was committed to establishing peace in the region and urged the attendees to isolate terrorism from “geopolitical partisanship”.

According to Singh, Jaishankar’s comments are reflective of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s endeavour to demonstrate that Pakistan doesn’t matter to India.

“Modi’s dominant narrative has been to portray India as an emerging great global power, and to portray Pakistan as being insignificant to India,” Singh said.

Bhutto Zardari’s statement that Islamophobic wolf whistling won’t be an effective “terrorism” strategy has been welcomed by Pakistan’s media.

“It is important for Pakistani leaders to continue to highlight and underscore the wild levels of hatred that can form mainstream Indian public discourse and public policy,” Mosharraf Zaidi, of Pakistan-based public policy think-tank Tabadlab, told Al Jazeera from Islamabad.