According to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, his country is prepared to host the 19th SAARC Summit, if the leadership in New Delhi is unwilling to travel to Islamabad, India can join it vrtually.
Qureshi said that India created dysfunction in SAARC through its stubbornness by refusing to come to Islamabad for the summit meeting by addressing a press conference to highlight the achievements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2021.
“I reiterate the invitation for the 19th SAARC summit. If India is not ready to come to Islamabad, it can join virtually, but it should not stop others from attending the moot,” he stated.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka comprise the SAARC, which has been ineffective since 2016 and has not held its biennial summit since Kathmandu’s in 2014.
The 2016 SAARC Summit was originally scheduled for November 15-19 in Islamabad. On Sept. 18 of that year, India was unable to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances” following a terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir.
The Islamabad summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Afghanistan declined to participate. Bilateral relations deteriorated after India withdrew Jammu and Kashmir’s special powers and bifurcated the state into two union territories in August,2019.
Qureshi, in noting that relations with India remained unchanged in 2021, blamed “Hindutva thinking” for sabotaging the prospects of good relations between the two countries.
In an environment free of terror, hostility, and violence, India is looking forward to normal neighbourly relations with Islamabad.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan last month expressed hope that the SAARC summit would be held once the “artificial obstacle” that has prevented it from taking place is removed. Qureshi echoed his remarks about the summit.
