Foreign ministers of India, Pakistan hold casual conversations on sidelines of SCO conclave

Islamabad: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar held casual conversations on two occasions since Tuesday evening and ways to improve India-Pakistan cricketing ties figured in one of them, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday.

The conversations took place on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), but there was no indication of any thaw in the frosty bilateral relations, they said.

Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar described Jaishankar's visit to Islamabad as an "ice breaker".

A pull-aside meeting took place between Jaishankar and Dar at a dinner reception hosted by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at his residence for the SCO delegates last evening, the sources said.

It was joined by Pakistan Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and the brief exchanges figured improving cricketing ties, they said.

Naqvi is also the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

It is learnt that the Pakistani side requested India's participation at the ICC Champions Trophy cricket tournament to be hosted by Pakistan in February next year.

On Wednesday, Jaishankar and Dar sat next to each other at the official lunch following the SCO conclave and were seen engaged in a conversation that appeared to be positive signalling, the sources said, declining to elaborate further.

A source said arrangements were made for the two foreign ministers to sit together. It is not known what transpired in the conversation.

However, there was no formal bilateral meeting between the two sides.

"Neither us nor them requested for a bilateral meeting... but I believe his (Jaishankar's) arrival here is an ice breaker," Tarar was quoted as saying by the media.

There was an overall positivity around Jaishankar's visit here, said a senior Pakistani official on condition of anonymity.

The external affairs minister and Sharif warmly shook hands, exchanged pleasantries and briefly interacted at the dinner reception last night. Sharif welcomed Jaishankar at the venue of the SCO summit this morning as well with a handshake.

Before departing from Islamabad, Jaishankar thanked PM Sharif and Foreign Minister Dar in a post on 'X' for the hospitality and courtesies and described the SCO conclave as "productive".

"Departing from Islamabad. Thank PM @CMShehbaz, DPM & FM @MIshaqDar50 and the Government of Pakistan for the hospitality and courtesies," Jaishankar said.

Two officials also referred to the external affairs minister's post on 'X' to say that his visit went off well and that it created a "refreshing" environment.

Jaishankar arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday to attend the SCO meeting.

It is the first time in nearly nine years that India's foreign minister travelled to Pakistan even as the ties between the two neighbours remained tense over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India's warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.

The relations further deteriorated after India on August 5, 2019, announced the withdrawal of special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories.

Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with India after New Delhi abrogated Article 370.

India has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such engagement.

Pakistan's then foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India in May 2023 to attend an in-person meeting of the foreign ministers of the SCO nations in Goa.

It was the first visit of a Pakistani foreign minister to India in almost 12 years.

The last Indian Foreign Minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. She had travelled to Islamabad to attend the 'Heart of Asia' conference on Afghanistan held on December 8-9, 2015.

Jaishankar, then India's foreign secretary, was part of Swaraj's delegation.

During the visit, Swaraj held talks with her then counterpart Sartaj Aziz.

Following the Swaraj-Aziz talks, a joint statement was released in which both sides announced their decision to start a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue.

Little over two weeks after Swaraj's trip, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sprang a surprise with a 150-minute visit to Lahore on his way back home from Kabul.

Modi visited the ancestral home of his then-Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and had talks to open ways for peace.

However, a series of terror attacks on India by Pakistan-based terrorists significantly strained the ties subsequently.