Wednesday 16 / October / 2024
Islamabad: Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Wednesday departed from Islamabad to Delhi after attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.
Jaishankar thanked Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar for their hospitality.
In a post on X, he said, "Departing from Islamabad. Thank PM Shehbaz Sharif, DPM & FM Ishaq Dar and the Government of Pakistan for the hospitality and courtesies."
https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1846508966152454176
Earlier in the day, in his address at the 23rd Meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government in Islamabad, Jaishankar called for introspection if friendship between the two nations has fallen short or good neighbourliness is missing.
Jaishankar said, "If we fast-forward from the inception of the Charter to the situation today, these goals and these tasks are even more crucial. It is, therefore, essential that we have an honest conversation."
"If trust is lacking or cooperation inadequate, if friendship has fallen short and good neighbourliness is missing somewhere, there are surely reasons to introspect and causes to address. Equally, it is only when we reaffirm our commitment most sincerely to the Charter that we can fully realize the benefits of cooperation and integration that it envisages," he added.
He termed cross-border terrorism, extremism and separatism as the "three evils" that hinder trade and people-to-people relations between countries.
He took a veiled jibe at Pakistan to state that if activities across borders are characterised by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are "hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows, connectivity and people-to-people exchanges in parallel."
"We all realise that the world is moving towards multi-polarity. Globalization and rebalancing are realities that cannot be denied. Cumulatively, they have created many new opportunities in terms of trade, investment, connectivity, energy flows and other forms of collaboration. There is no question that our region would benefit immensely if we take this forward. Not just that, others too would draw their own inspiration and lessons from such efforts," he said in his address.
