Day after Pak's invitation to Modi for SCO meet, Jaishankar says ‘era of uninterrupted dialogue’ over

A day after Pakistan invited India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit it will host in October, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday that the “era of uninterrupted dialogue” with Islamabad was over.

India has been firm in its policy that New Delhi would not resume regular diplomatic talks with Islamabad until Pakistan reins in terror groups engaged in cross-border terrorism.

Speaking at a book launch event in New Delhi, Jaishankar said, “The era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over. Actions have consequences. So far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, Article 370 is done.”

“So, the issue is what kind of relationship we can contemplate with Pakistan,” Jaishankar said, “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.”

More from India

'First Assam visit after Op Sindoor': PM Modi inaugurates projects worth Rs 18,530 cr India to host fifth Coast Guard Global Summit in Chennai in 2027

#WATCH | Speaking on Pakistan at a book launch event in Delhi, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar says, "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… pic.twitter.com/41ZSq9VQHs

— ANI (@ANI) August 30, 2024

The minister was apparently referring to cross-border operations by Indian forces in 2016 — after the Uri terror attack — and 2019 — following the Pulwama blast incident. In both instances, Pakistan-based terror groups, New Delhi said, targeted Indian security forces, and subsequently India launched cross Line of Control (LoC) military operations to hit terror camps.

India and Pakistan have scaled down their diplomatic contacts after the 2019 terror attack, followed by India’s operation and an aerial dogfight that led to a serious crisis as an Indian Air Force wing commander landed on the other side of the LoC and was captured by the Pakistani forces. Intense hours passed before then-Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was forced to make a statement in the National Assembly to announce the release of the Indian pilot.

During Friday’s event, Jaishankar also said, “For every country, neighbours are always a conundrum. They can never be solved. They are continuing relationships which will always throw up problems.”

Citing examples of recent diplomatic issues with the Maldives and Bangladesh, Jaishankar said, “People sometimes come and say that’s happened in Bangladesh and this has happened in the Maldives… [but] they need to look around the world and tell me which country doesn’t face challenges with neighbours. It is in the very nature of being a neighbour that this will happen. In fact, the closeness — which is the definition of a neighbour — is actually the complication.”

India’s relationship with Pakistan has depended a lot on how the governments on the two sides have dealt with the issues of terrorism that Islamabad links to the Kashmir issue. India has repeatedly said that “terror and talks” can’t go together and maintained that its bilateral relation with Pakistan depends on how efficiently Pakistan controls terror groups operating from its territories.

It is not yet clear whether Modi will travel to Pakistan to attend the two-day SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in October. Pakistan holds the rotating chairmanship of the SCO.