New Delhi: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on Monday, April 8, jointly endorsed a call for “dialogue” between New Delhi and Islamabad to resolve the strained ties, as well as the Kashmir dispute.
India’s stance on talks with Pakistan is that it is willing to restart dialogue with Pakistan, only after cross-border terrorism ends.
The joint statement, which mentions India and Kashmir, was issued during the visit of Pakistan prime minister Shahbaz Sharif. This was Sharif’s first foreign trip after becoming the prime minister following the controversial general elections.
“The two sides stressed the importance of dialogue between Pakistan and India to resolve the outstanding issues between the two countries, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute to ensure peace and stability in the region,” said the Saudi-Pakistan joint statement.
India has always asserted that it will only hold restart talks with Pakistan in a “terror-free” atmosphere. This position was reinforced by Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar who said last year that “Victims of terrorism do not sit together with perpetrators of terrorism to discuss terrorism”.
The joint statement released by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan notably omits any reference to addressing terrorism, particularly concerning efforts to resume talks with India.
In contrast, the India-Saudi Arabia joint statement, issued during the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had no mention of Kashmir or Pakistan. Rather, it had a substantive paragraph on countering terrorism, “in all its forms”.
According to India’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Talmiz Ahmad, Saudi Arabia had started to treat Kashmir as a bilateral dispute from 2001, during the visit of then external affairs Jaswant Singh to Riyadh. However, it took the 26/11 Mumbai attacks for Saudi Arabia to begin reaching out to India for cooperation in counter-terrorism.
