Pakistan invites India to SAARC summit; India says yet to receive formal invitation

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Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that they have invited India for SAARC summit. India, however, has not received any formal invitation yet.
New Delhi: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday invited India to virtually attend the much-delayed SAARC summit.

Speaking at a press conference, Qureshi said that India can take part in the summit virtually if it does want to attend it in person over COVID concerns.

India, however, said it has not received any formal invitation yet.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a regional grouping that comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It has not been very effective since 2016 as its biennial summits have not taken place since the last one in Kathmandu in 2014.

The development comes days after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed hope that his country would host the summit when the “artificial obstacle” created in its way is removed.

Khan had underlined that SAARC can provide a conducive and beneficial atmosphere to build economic synergies which can transform the quality of life of the people of South Asia.

He also “emphasised on strengthening cooperation on issues of common interest including climate change, education, poverty alleviation, energy integration and health challenges,” the Foreign Office quoted him as saying.

The 2016 SAARC summit was supposed to be held in in Islamabad on November 15-19, 2016.

However, after a terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri on September 18 that year, India expressed its inability to participate in the summit due to “prevailing circumstances”.

The summit was cancelled after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also refused to participate in the Islamabad meet.

https://www.timesnownews.com/india/...-says-yet-to-receive-formal-invitation/845922

 

[Major]

) india tried to isolate us and now look. With cpec and iit they themselves got isolated. Regional power my foot.

They had issues with nepal and bangladesh

 

[cricketjoshila]

) india tried to isolate us and now look. With cpec and iit they themselves got isolated. Regional power my foot.

They had issues with nepal and bangladesh

India isolated? LoL.

What cpec? India refused to join the Chinese BRI. India is not short of any investment.

India's annual defence budget is more than the entire cpec investment. Its amusing when pakistanis like you tom tom a 60 bn usd investment over more than a decade to a 3trillion dollar economy.

Pakistan is literally going around asking for money to run its economy.

Coming to this summit, hopefully India will refuse to participate in it again.

 

[Major]

India isolated? LoL.

What cpec? India refused to join the Chinese BRI. India is not short of any investment.

India's annual defence budget is more than the entire cpec investment. Its amusing when pakistanis like you tom tom a 60 bn usd investment over more than a decade to a 3trillion dollar economy.

Pakistan is literally going around asking for money to run its economy.

Coming to this summit, hopefully India will refuse to participate in it again.

India is part of bri so save the rona dhona.

3 trrilion economy that couldnt even become regional power. The region that is involved in cooperarion with different countries is pakistan with iit and cpec.

While india tried to remoce us from saarc which backfired ). Go fox your relations with nepal and bangaldesh and than talk about being the regional power.

Meanwhile we will enjoy our cpec and IIT deals. Atleast we will be having direct acces towards gas and lithium for future energy needs. To bad you need our permission to use land routes for afghani lithium

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Pakistan should put the invitation in writing to avoid any miscommunication issues. Very simple and easy fix to this.

 

[Major]

Pakistan should put the invitation in writing to avoid any miscommunication issues. Very simple and easy fix to this.

Would be surprised if india avoids it.

India has been desperate to become a regional power center. Saarc was the only way and 2-4 years back they were trying their best isolate pakistan from it and they themsleves become the center of the region. But their relations with nepal and bangladesh turned bad.

If they back out of this saarc, the indians wont be able to bark about being a regional power when it itself got themselves isolates from its own region . Backing out of this would shooting themselves on the foot

 

[Syed1]

Boss we sent the invite through messenger pigeon but you captured it as spy :



Arrey bhaiyya tu anthum sanskaar hogaya

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Would be surprised if india avoids it.

India has been desperate to become a regional power center. Saarc was the only way and 2-4 years back they were trying their best isolate pakistan from it and they themsleves become the center of the region. But their relations with nepal and bangladesh turned bad.

If they back out of this saarc, the indians wont be able to bark about being a regional power when it itself got themselves isolates from its own region . Backing out of this would shooting themselves on the foot

Of course India will avoid attending, they give too much importance to Pakistan instead of acting like a true regional power, but still Pakistan should put the invitation in writing to stop Indian wriggling. Pakistan cannot control India's response, but they can at least show that they are putting out the invitation.

 

[MenInG]

The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday categorically rejected the "false claims and tendentious remarks" by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson regarding the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

According to a report by The Express Tribune, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday had reiterated Pakistan's invitation to India and other members of Saarc for the next summit in Islamabad, adding that New Delhi could join the moot virtually if it did not want to attend in-person.

No Saarc summit has taken place since 2014. The 19th summit, scheduled to be held in 2016 in Islamabad, could not go ahead after India pulled out, blaming Pakistan for an attack on its army brigade in Uri – a town in occupied Kashmir. Under the Saarc charter, a meeting of the heads of government cannot be held if any one of the member states does not join.

In response to Qureshi's remarks, Indian Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told the media on Thursday that it was "aware of the background" regarding why the summit had not been held since 2014.

"There has been no material change in the situation since then. Therefore, there is still no consensus that would permit holding of the summit," he was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

In a statement issued today, FO spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said "India’s obstruction of the Saarc process was an established fact".

"Motivated by its partisan reasons, and acting in violation of charter provisions requiring exclusion of bilateral issues, India was responsible for stymieing the 19th Saarc summit scheduled to take place in Pakistan in 2016," he said.

The spokesperson added that India's "myopic attitude" was rendering a valuable platform for regional cooperation increasingly dysfunctional.

"Pakistan hoped that India would review its self-serving approach and enable the Saarc process to move forward for the progress and prosperity of the peoples of South Asia. For its part, Pakistan remained ready to host the next Saarc summit as soon as the artificial obstacles created in its way were removed," the statement said.

'India must recognise the legitimate Kashmiri struggle'
During his media briefing, the Indian official was also asked about Prime Minister Imran Khan's appeal to the international community to take action on the situation in IIOJK.

According to the Hindustan Times report, Bagchi responded by saying that occupied Kashmir was "an inalienable and integral part of India".

He was also quoted as saying that the remarks were made "by the prime minister of such a country that openly supports cross-border terrorism, which gave refuge to Osama bin Laden, and whose shocking human rights record the world is familiar with”.

The FO spokesperson addressed these comments and said that no amount of obfuscation and misrepresentation by Indian officials could hide India’s state-terrorism in IIOJK.

"The egregious violations of human rights of the Kashmiri people had been extensively documented by the international human rights machinery [...]. In addition, Pakistan had shared several dossiers with the international community on India’s unabated human rights abuses in IIOJK and its state-terrorism against the Kashmiri people and in Pakistan," the FO spokesperson said.

"India must abjure the use of state-terrorism as an instrument of policy. Pakistan will continue to resolutely oppose Indian machinations and expose its anti-peace agenda imperiling regional peace and security," he added.

He called on Indian to recognise the reality of the just, legitimate and indigenous Kashmiri struggle , respect the wishes of the Kashmiri people, and grant them their inalienable right to self-determination in accordance with the UN Charter and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

DAWN