LAHORE: Pakistan’s former foreign minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri has termed Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s upcoming visit to Pakistan a `positive development.’

India announced on Friday that Mr Jaishankar would lead a delegation to Pakistan to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, scheduled to take place on Oct 15 and 16 in Islamabad.

“Jaishankar’s visit is of multilateral nature nevertheless it may help ease tensions between the two neighboring countries. While it should not be forgotten that the late Indian external affairs minister Shushma Swaraj had also visited Islamabad in 2015 to attend the Heart of Asia Conference amidst tensions between the two countries. Despite that the meeting was utilized by both sides for sidelines meetings between the two foreign ministers,” Mr. Kasuri said in a talk with Dawn on Friday.

“Both countries must seize this opportunity. Resuming dialogue will help restore people-to-people contacts,” he said and suggested at the time of great tensions in the Middle East where Israel had been targeting the people of Gaza and Lebanon, Pakistan and India might have been encouraged to lower tensions. At the time of the ceasefire between the two countries in the past, the UAE ambassador claimed to have played a role,” he said and added both the countries were nuclear powers and had a strong army so it was in their mutual interest to lower tension in the region.

“In such a situation, both Pakistan and India need to act responsibly and reasonably. This is a crucial moment that requires thoughtful and measured actions to ensure regional stability,” the former minister said.

Mr Kasuri said in view of tensions between two countries India could have sent a low level delegation but it didn’t. He said Pak-India relations were unpredictable and they could take unexpected turns as happened on many occasions in the past.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2024