Naseebullah Khan
After the visit if than prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2014, the visit of the foreign minister of Pakistan Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is the first high-profile visit of any Pakistani. Mr. Bhutto is participating in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Foreign Ministers of the SCO. Can the SCO be a platform for bringing back the already strained relations between Pakistan and India? This is a huge opportunity after years and should be harvested for peace between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The relationship between both states remained fraught with mistrust and animosity. The prime reasons have been allegations of sponsoring terrorism and extremism. The SCO which is committed to curbing three evils terrorism, extremism, and separatism can be a base for restoring peace and ending mistrust between both states. Turley, the tension between Pakistan and India has affected the whole of South Asia. The SCO should take pragmatic steps to sit both states on tables. Once peace occurs, it could be beneficial for both Pakistan and India as well as for the whole region.
The SCO could facilitate the TAPI project and could link it with the CPEC. In this regard, the construction of the International north-south transportation corridor INSTC could be helpful for Pakistan and India. In addition, the platform can further take steps in the completion of the peace pipeline between Iran, Pakistan, and India. A win-win situation for all. There is a dire need of starting economic diplomacy for both Pakistan and India. Both states are in the clinches of climate change, poverty, unemployment, low healthcare facilities, hunger, and declining socioeconomic indicators of the common people. Sanity must prevail by adopting a geo-economics approach by both states for which the SCO can become a motivational platform. By doing so, India could have the shortest access to the markets of the CAR countries via Pakistan.