Is Shanghai Cooperation Organisation going the SAARC way?
FirstpostThe way business was conducted, or not conducted at the recent Goa ministerial meeting – and more so on the sidelines, which caught the media and national attention better – the question is if the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is going the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation way. At the end of the SCO ministerial meeting in Goa, India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar, ticked off the two over the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that passes through Pak-occupied Kashmir.In a pointed reference to Pakistan, he also said that ‘victims of terrorism do not sit with perpetrators of terrorism’. Jaishankar’s bilateral talks with Qin Gang and defence minister Rajnath Singh’s Delhi discussions with counterpart Li Shangfu clearly brought out the unmatched post-Galwan Indian expectations from China on the LAC in particular. At the Rajnath-Li talks, India reiterated one more time that bilateral relations cannot be ‘normal’ unless there is peace in the border areas. Robbing Peter, paying Paul Looked at from the long-standing bilateral relations, especially against common adversary India, China could not but have said things that Pakistan wants to hear, especially after India’s snub at Goa.