What to expect of Bilawal’s India visit?

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is set to undertake a visit to India next month. Bilawal will lead a Pakistani delegation at the Shanghai Cooperation Origination (SCO) meeting scheduled to take place in Goa on May 4 and 5. This will be the first visit by a Pakistani Foreign Minister to India in 12 years. Last time Hina Rabbani Khar travelled to New Delhi in July 2011. The difference though was that Khar’s visit was meant to advance the peace process while the upcoming visit of Bilawal is not bilateral in nature.

Given the current state of relationship between the two countries, the visit is going to get a lot of traction not only in India and Pakistan but beyond. The question, however, is: what has prompted Pakistan to send its foreign minister to India when there is no change in New Delhi’s stance on the issues involving the two countries?

The decision to send Bilawal for the regional conference in India was taken after extensive in-house consultations, and all stakeholders including the security establishment concluded that the country must not skip a meeting related to such an important forum.

India had extended the invitation to Bilawal along with foreign ministers of other member states that include Russia, China and certain central Asian states. The invitation was extended to Pakistan in January. But consultations to determine whether Pakistan should attend the SCO meetings in India began much before that.

“We knew India was going to be the president of SCO. We knew Pakistan would be invited as India had no option but to extend invitations to Pakistan for all the events,” a source familiar with the development told The Express Tribune.

Pakistan had begun consultations 6 months ago and arrived at a decision that Islamabad must not skip the meeting merely because it was taking place in India. The Foreign Office took the lead and advocated in favour of Bilawal visiting India. The security establishment and other players too endorsed the Foreign Office’s decision. All the stakeholders also agreed that the move would, in no way, compromise Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir or other issues given that Bilawal’s visit is only to attend the SCO meeting.

The reason Pakistan decided to attend the meeting in person was because Islamabad and New Delhi, when they were admitted full members of the SCO in 2017, had committed not to undermine the regional forum. The presence of Russia and China, the two major players, also played a part in Pakistan’s decision. “There is no point Pakistan skipping the meeting and sending a wrong message to the regional players,” another source said, citing the rationale behind Pakistan’s move.

Given India is the host, there is a talk going around if Bilawal will have any bilateral meeting with India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. A report in the India media on Wednesday claimed that India had turned down a request by Pakistan for a bilateral meeting. However, no such request was made from the Pakistan side. The Foreign Office did not issue a formal statement to rebut the claims since this was reported by the Indian media and not necessarily by the Indian government.

Officials in the Foreign Office say Pakistan has least expectations from Bialwal’s visit to India as far as the bilateral relationship is concerned but it does not want to create any negativity ahead of the foreign minister’s tour to Goa. There is a sense within the government circles that unlike in the past, the attitude of the Indian authorities during their conversations about the visit was not hostile.

Bilawal’s visit may be an ice breaker but there is an assessment in Pakistan that nothing dramatic is expected as both countries are set to go for parliamentary elections in next few months. Nevertheless, Pakistan feels that it will not lose anything with Bilawal visiting India.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2023.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.