Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj are likely to interact during the upcoming meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kyrgyzstan later this month, a top Pakistani official said Thursday.
“The two foreign ministers would be present in themeeting and in all likelihood would interact amongst themselves and with otherleaders,” Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal told the media here.
But he hastened to clarify that “no formal meeting is,however, envisaged”.
The SCO Ministerial meeting will take place in Kyrgyzstan onMay 21-22.
The economic and security grouping was founded at a summitin Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic,Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its members in2017.
In September, India called off a meeting between Swaraj andQureshi at the UN citing the release of postal stamps “glorifying” aKashmiri militant by Pakistan as one of the reasons.
The Indo-Pak tensions escalated in recent months after amilitant attack in Pulwama by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group that killed40 CRPF soldiers on February 14 and a subsequent aerial strike by India on aJeM training camp in Balakot on February 26.
On February 27, the Pakistan Air Force retaliated byunsuccessfully targeting several military installations in Jammu and Kashmir.
In the dogfight, Pakistan downed a MiG-21 Bison jet andcaptured an IAF pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.
Faisal also alleged that India was “causing an armsrace in the region”.
“India has been trying to bring the region into an armsrace. Let me say that an increase in the defence budget is not the soledeterminant of a nation’s strength,” he said.
Responding to a question that an Italian journalist claimedthat 45 Pakistanis were injured in the Balakot attack, Faisal said, “thereis no truth in such statements.”
Responding to a question about Indian Minister for WaterResources saying that India will not allow even a single drop of water to flowinto Pakistan, Faisal said the Indus Waters Treaty was signed by both thecountries and India was in “violation of that Treaty in the case ofKishanganga and Ratle Hydro Electric Power Projects.”
“We have already raised this matter at the disputeresolution mechanism of the World Bank. However, the matter has not beenresolved, as yet. Pakistan wishes that the Indus Waters Treaty should beallowed to function and the dispute resolution mechanism should take its due course.We urge the World Bank to empanel the Court of Arbitration, so that aresolution is reached in this regard,” he said.
Regarding the foreign secretary meeting with the Indian HighCommissioner a day earlier at the Foreign Office, he said, “let me appriseyou that such meetings occur regularly to discuss various evolving issues. Icannot disclose the detailed agenda as it does not fall in the mediadomain”.
Faisal also confirmed that Christian woman Aasia Bibi left Pakistan but refused to give the date when she left or the country where she went. He also said Pakistan supported a political solution to the Afghan conflict and consistently maintained the position that an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process was the only way forward. PTI