A Shallow Summit or a Staggering Diplomacy?
Is Pakistan’s Diplomacy lagging at the SCO summit this year?
The pomp and vigor of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Summit has always attracted national and global attention. Previously, Pakistan was seen as no less of a star within the Eurasian heartland dynamics with great fervor for buzzwords like the “Pan Eurasian Zipper” and the final third leg for the Eurasian alignment. Pakistan’s engagement with China and Russia as a singular entity was rightly set in motion during former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political tenure. Despite changes in domestic players and politics, Pakistan still vies for a position in the Eurasian dynamics in the name of regional integration in hopes of keeping its tilt towards geoeconomics alive. With much hope tied to the regional mammoth that is the SCO, Pakistan is struggling with its internal political-economic matrix, and that is to a larger degree impacting its diplomatic ventures.
The Dragonbear has always been wary of the Indo-Pak capability to create a gridlock. No country currently has room to offer a chance to Indo-Pak quagmires with global uncertainty at an all time high. Recently, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Foreign Minister of Pakistan confirmed his attendance in person to the SCO summit hosted by India this year. There was much speculated in the early days of whether Pakistan would go in person or proceed dialogue online. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan, in its weekly brief to the public shared that “Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO Charter and processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities.”
Pakistan has continued its virtual participation in the summit: Ms Sherry Rehman, Federal Minister for Climate Change attended the 4th SCO meeting of Heads of Ministries on Environmental Protection. She has rightly scored points in the climate agenda globally fighting for the case of loss and damage pledges; Director of National Disaster Management Authority and Member of Disaster Risk Reduction have also represented on meetings pertaining to Prevention and Elimination of Emergency Situations. The meeting for Head of Defence Ministries drew attention with Russian and Chinese Ministers landing in India, and Pakistan remained a virtual participant.
For many, doubts remained over Pakistan’s physical presence in a hostile environment. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Foreign Minister of Pakistan landed in Goa and the scrutiny and frenzy took to media and social media platforms.
Although seemingly impossible but it is in time for Pakistan to curate its Kashmir and India policies as two different categories to leverage its diplomatic efforts. This is in no way an excuse to forego Indian atrocities in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) but rather a call for brainstorming novel channels of diplomacy and activism. Dr S. Jaishankar, External Minister of India continues to smear Pakistan as a terror exporting country without realising that India currently is at the peak of violent extremism against ALL its minorities, especially the Muslims in India. The human rights violations in IIOJK are a daily practice, from sexual abuse of women and girls to widespread killings and torture all reported by key organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, etc.
What Dr Jaishankar needs to do is look inwards at the Hindutva Project that is brewing within India and currently stretching its tentacles outwards to influence a global persecution of Muslims worldwide instead of name calling his counter representative from Pakistan. For starters India could try answering what its naval commander Kulbhushan Jhadav was doing in Pakistan since India enjoys talking on terrorism. For India the letter ‘t’ will remain a favourite to bog down Pakistan at any international forum; India unfortunately lost the opportunity to really show itself as a reliable rising hegemon of South Asia.
Despite impending pressures, Pakistan will have to take the bitter steps without much expectations. It is also imperative that Pakistan deeply studies the lines of cooperation to make space readily with the Central Asian countries instead of only focusing on its bilateral relations with India; it remains ever so important to highlight India’s extremist policies and actions against the Kashmiris and the Muslims in India.
The summit this year is a microcosm of the larger and fierce geopolitical and geoeconomic competition at play. Russia’s war on Ukraine is causing a geopolitical decay in its position as a guarantor of any security within Central Asia. China’s ingress in the region continues. Whether or not the forum offers any relief to the Central Asian region remains a question with its quagmires of water and food security, political and economic problems and issues pertaining to cross border security and counter terrorism.
At the same time the SCO is garnering attention with its inclusion of Iran and the potential membership of Saudi Arabia in the backdrop of Chinese diplomacy in creating a thaw between Riyadh and Tehran. Furthermore, Indo-China clashes in the Himalayas remain suspenseful. India with its arms stretched wide towards the West and East is hoping to become the third pole, chanting the mantra of multipolarity.
The glamor and clamor of the SCO summit this year is such that no one country gets to make boastful strides. As C Raja Mohan pointed in his recent write up, “Even as the Eurasian forum looks attractive to a growing number of regional states, its internal contradictions are casting a shadow over its strategic coherence.” For Pakistan these challenges continue to remain tough with a meagre hand to play.
