New Delhi: In a tough message to Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the “era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over”. Jaishankar also said that every action from Islamabad will have consequences. The relations between the two countries have been on a downward curve, primarily due to the Kashmir issue as well as the cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
"The era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over. Actions have consequences. So far as J&K is concerned, Article 370 is done. So, the issue is what kind of relationship we can contemplate with Pakistan…What I do want to say is that we are not passive, and whether events take a positive or a negative direction, either way, we will react," he said at event in Delhi.
The remarks came a day after Pakistan invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of Government meeting to be held in October.
Pakistan holds the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government (CHG) and in that capacity, will be hosting the two-day in-person SCO Heads of Governments Meeting in October.
"Invitations have been sent to the heads of countries to participate in the meeting which will take place on October 15-16. An invitation has also been sent to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi (too)," Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told the weekly press briefing.
When asked about ties with India, the spokesperson said, “Pakistan does not have direct bilateral trade with India.”
The Islamabad summit meeting will be preceded by a ministerial meeting and several rounds of senior officials’ meetings focused on financial, economic, socio-cultural, and humanitarian cooperation among the SCO member states.
The SCO, comprising India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is an influential economic and security bloc that has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations.
As part of this key regional group, both Pakistan and India can hold summit meetings.
India hosted the SCO Summit last year, organised in a virtual mode, and attended by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif through a video link.
In 2023, Pakistan's then foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India to attend the in-person two-day meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers in Goa, which was the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in almost 12 years.
India has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment that is free of terror and hostility for such an engagement.