SAARC Needs To Be Put In Cold Storage, Maldives to be invited to Join BIMSTEC
Pakistan has become like the proverbial dog’s tail, which will never straighten, no matter what. They know that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India. Also that one day India will integrate those areas presently illegally occupied by Pakistan. At that time India will not hesitate to use force if required.
Nevertheless one Pakistan minister, namely Hina Rabbani Khar on Tuesday said that any efforts to integrate South Asia and boost trade would be futile without resolving the “70-year-old dispute”. On the Kashmir issue, Khar, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said, “… I did not want to go into all of that as it is an economic debate but it is the elephant in the room and you cannot ignore it”
Her remarks came at a session on ‘Strategic outlook on South Asia’ at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022, in replies to suggestions about boosting ties and facilitating people’s movement across borders while keeping aside the differences between India and Pakistan.
India has point blank told the UN and other major powers of the World that terror and talks will not take place together and for any normalisation in ties, Pakistan needs to stop terror activities against India. Kashmir is an integral part of India and non negotiable. It is Pakistan that should move out of the territory occupied by it or they will be finally thrown out like the Portuguese from Goa. India will chose the appropriate time.
Even China has been told to settle the Indo Tibetan and China Tibet borders and both have to be demarcated on Ground also. Till then ties cannot be normalized and trade etc will not continue as earlier.
It has been reported that Khar also reacted to a remark by a panelist regarding India China relationship, rather in positive manner. Well kudos to her but she must realize that now Pakistan is not even a blip on India’s radar. So any harping on Kashmir by any one, in Islamabad, Beijing, London or Washington is now meaningless. Ties can be normalized with India only after ending support to terrorism by Pakistan and integration of POK with India. There will be no opening of trade etc till then. Even sports engagements may just come to a halt.
Khar may keep uttering that “ people on both sides of Radcliffe Line are very similar in every way, culturally, we look alike, the way we speak, we eat similar food and we are pretty much very similar”. However this will not cut any ice any more. In case POK is not returned the legality of Radcliffe Line itself may come into question.
Any one poking its nose into India’s internal matters, Pakistan or any one else, must be aware of the possibility of losing a part of that nose.
India too on its part must make Pakistan pay for all its active support to terrorism. Yes we are now in a position and ready to hit any terrorist training camp which send their terrorists into India, wherever they are located, even beyond Pakistan. We will not be apologetic about it any more.
Trade should not be normalized. Instead India should now move all SAARC initiatives into cold storage. Instead request Maldives to join BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) and be done away with SAARC.
The BIMSTEC is an international organisation of seven South Asian and South East Asian nations, housing 1.73 billion people and having a combined gross domestic product of US$4.4 trillion (2022). The BIMSTEC member states are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand – only Maldives needs to be invited. The combined GDP of this grouping in PPP terms will be over 16 trillion USD ( US GDP is 20.5 trillion USD in PPP terms ). An economic super power in the making along with the requisite technical and military wherewithal.
