Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that his country was ready to host the 19th SAARC Summit and India can join it virtually if the leadership in New Delhi is not willing to visit Islamabad.
Addressing a press conference to highlight the achievements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2021, Qureshi accused India of making SAARC dysfunctional through its stubbornness by refusing to come to Islamabad for the Summit meeting.
“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 said.
“Pakistan is willing to host saarc summit but India should not stop others to join it. India can join virtually. Bakiyon ko toh na rokey”, says Pakistani Foreign minister Qureshi.
SAARC – a regional grouping comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – has not been very effective since 2016 and its biennial summits have not taken place since the last one in Kathmandu in 2014.
The 2016 SAARC Summit was originally planned to be held in Islamabad on November 15-19, 2016. But after a terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances”.
The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the Islamabad meet.
Noting that there was no change in relations with India in 2021, Qureshi cited the alleged dominance of “Hindutva thinking” in India for sabotaging the prospects of good ties between the two countries.
“Unfortunately, ties with India in 2021 were frozen. In our view, the potential of regional cooperation has been hit by aggressive Hindutva behaviour in recent years,” he said.
He said Pakistan wanted peaceful ties with all its neighbours, including India, but the responsibility for improving the relations was on India. Zeenews.com
