Implications of tensions between Pakistan and India stretch beyond South Asia. Long-standing animosity, stemming from, among other things, the dispute over Kashmir, has complicated China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
But there are signs of progress in easing the tensions. Both countries joined the China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) a year ago, marking the first membership expansion of the bloc since 2001.
This past weekend’s SCO summit, held in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, was the first of its kind since the organization’s expansion. Some hailed the development as an opportunity to make a breakthrough in India-Pakistan ties, including China’s top diplomat.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted in an interview with Chinese state media that both countries committed to improving their ties in joining the SCO.
“We know there are existing and historical, unresolved issues and conflicts between Pakistan and India. But I think after their joining of the SCO, maybe we can say that their relationship might be better as the grouping provides a better platform and opportunities for building the relations between them,” Wang said, as quoted by the Economic Times.
“Because when joining the SCO, a series of agreements had to be signed and pledges had to be made. One of the key pillars is to keep good and friendly relations and they should not see each other as opponents, much less enemies,” Wang added.
“Because they have signed these agreements, they shoulder a responsibility for implementing them.”
China’s Global Times said that India’s participation was also a sign of the country’s desire to build closer ties to Beijing.
“India’s inclusion in the SCO is conducive to increasing the strategic trust between China and India. Since India became an observer to the organization at its fifth summit in 2005, it has been trying to become a member.”
The state-run news outlet also suggested India’s involvement could help further regional connectivity.
“India’s SCO membership can also help promote connectivity between Central Asia and South Asia. Russia and Central Asia are important oil and natural-gas producers. As a country which imports about 70% of its oil and gas, India urgently needs a path to reach Central Asia.”
Pakistani media noted the symbolic importance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handshake with Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain.
Whatever the substance underlying the appearance of closer ties in South Asia, the optics stand in stark contrast to the disunity presented in Canada at the Group of Seven gathering. While friction grows among Western powers, it appears to be diminishing among Eastern ones.
Irfan Rana if you see my comments before, I said Kashmir situation is caused by seperatists and over ground workers funded by isi as per an agenda. I said local boys influenced by this are taking up gun against state just like PTM in your country, though PTM is still a peacefu movement.
Anyone going thru tough military presence feel soffocated, be it in Kashmir, fata, Lahore or Delhi. We all feel that. Kashmir valley is troubled by multiple factors including wrong policies of central government. But things are exacerbated by jehadi terrorists, separatists & Over ground workers, not just local militants & indian armed forces. Hurriyet will do what their masters from across the border, their handlers, say. Sad reality.
In open war, pakistan cannot last, this is truth. In open war, India will have to face enormous loses, this is the truth.
Status quo will prevail and loc converted to permanent border is the only solution.
Like China
M Sheraz Khan
Here are the facts for stupid and ignorant Pakis like yourself:
1948 – Pakistan’s leader Jinnah ordered his army take the princely state of Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir (and Gilgit)…Paki soliders dressed up as tribesman along with Pashtun tribesmen rape and pillaged in J&K till the Indian Army went in, following the singing of the Instrument of Accession. The Indian Army captured and killed the Pakis and drove them out of J & K…and were poised to take Gilgit…till the UN brokered a ceasefire and the LoC was born then. India drove out Paki forces from Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir, which meant India controls most of the territory till date!
1965 – Again the Pakis lost territory in the West, including the strategic Haji Pir pass (which was later returned to the Pakis following the Tashkent Agreement). The Paki army fled from the biggest tank battlefield in Karm Keran. Also, look at what a Pakistani Historian had to say about it:
"Professor S Akbar Zaidi, who rubbished Pakistan army claims that it won … the 1965 war, is not the first in that country to have done so. Altaf Gauhar’s ‘Inside the 1965 War’ and ‘Ayub Khan: Pakistan’s First Military Ruler’ had conclusively established that fact.
Gauhar, then Pakistan Minister of Information and Broadcasting, says Ayub was over-ridden with the “prejudice” that “the Hindu has no stomach for a fight” and this “turned to belief, if not a military doctrine, which had the decisive effect on the course of events.”
In his books, Gauhar details how ‘Operation Gibraltar’ was an ill-conceived plan – it was based on assumptions that the Kashmiris will start a massive uprising against India once they found mujahids across the border in their midst. That just did not happen. The Kashmiris resented the orgy of murder and rape that these mujahids unleased on Kashmiris in 1947-48 and in most cases, the mujahids (often Pakistanis regulars in civilian uniform) were turned in to the Indian army.
1971 – Pak lost all of East Pakistan, and took 100,000 Paki POWs and kept them for a year in military camps in India.
1999 – The Indian Armed forces evicted the entire Pak Army and jihadis from the Kargil Heights. They killed 3,000 to 4,000 soliders of the NLI, and the some of the bodies that were given to the Pakis were rejected by Musharraf, the main architect of the war. PM Nawaz and Benazir Bhutto later confirmed that almost the entire NLI soldiers were killed by the Indian Army. Prez Clinton had little effect on the Kargil war except that he warned Sharif that no help is forthcoming from the USA and Pakistan had removed what was left of its army from Kargil! Pakis soldiers captured by the Indian Army were turned over to Pakistan but they refused to take them back, claiming Pak had no soldiers inside India’s Kargil sector. They were later shot dead by the Indians.
I suggest that you use the 3 brain cells inside your thick skull before posting a litany of lies and baloney. The bitter TRUTH hurts you Pakis more than u admit!
if pakistanis can stop eating breathing ingesting bathing sweating farting and sleeping with religon every second week month decade and lifetime, there may be a chance. get a life man..
Jhangeer Basheer
Keep dreaming PORKI! U Pakis lost every war with India (1948, 1965, 1971 & 1999)…and u talk glibly about taking Kashmir!!!
Kashmir is an integral part of India and there is NOTHING U PAKIS CAN DO ABOUT IT!
Jhangeer Basheer why don’t you people try and take it then. Please do. We are sick of this nonsense, talk peace and send terrorists.
As pakistani and muslim we want all the muslim state occupied by india by illegal means such as gujrat and kashmir back in oakistan its the mettar of the time inshallah we get it back from india
India and Pakistan, both are signatory of charter of SCO and are bound to implement SCO charter.
China and Russia have to Guarenttee that India will follow SCO charter.
India will never agree for third party intervention and it would be good for China not get involved in Indian affairs. De hyphenate Pakistan and India for good Sino Indian relationship. That would be good for both china and India.
POK is a bilateral dispute between India and Pakistan. Pakistan is in occupation of that land, and its terrorists created Hindu Exodus from Kashmir valley between 1989 to 97. All pakistan now wants is the 10 districts of Kashmir valley. Instead as per UN resolution which states that undivided state of J&K is provisionally indian and pakistan should vacate the occupied lands, should be adhered to by Pakistan army and vacate pok (gb and Western kashmir) along with it’s people it settled over years.
Pakistan funds separatists, over ground works ( extremists) who in turn create hostile situation and spread of militancy, where young boys take up gun against state. Oh it also sends trained jehadi terrorists from its created jehadi tanzeems into the indian state of J&K.
On it’s soil, in the name of fight against terror, it uses brutal tactics, from helicopter gunships to tanks to artillery, against balochi and pasthun tribesmen and interferes in Afghanistan via Afghan Taliban.
A unconventional nation like Pakistan cannot be dealt with diplomacy. Indian current strategy of an eye for an eye is the only way to teach pakistan a lesson in becoming a normal nation.
Arthur Micol
India and Pakistan are natural friends, Resist the divide, conquer and hate mongering of western intelligence groups.