India thwarts Pakistan's bid to recognise Taliban by hosting SAARC summit

New Delhi: – Pakistan had started a move to recognise the Taliban rule in Afghanistan by organising the SAARC Summit. India will be invited to the conference, Pakistan’s foreign minister announced. But India’s Foreign Ministry foiled Pakistan’s move, saying there was no consensus among the members on the organisation of the SAARC Summit. After this, Pakistan’s foreign ministry has started criticising India.

However, the SAARC Summit of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan has not been held since 2014. The summit was to be held in Pakistan in 2016. But in the meantime, there was a terrorist attack on the Indian Army base at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir. India boycotted SAARC in Pakistan after it was revealed that Pakistan was behind the attack. The conference had to be cancelled after Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Afghanistan boycotted it. After this, Pakistan still has not been able to host SAARC.

Moreover, stating that the situation has not changed since 2016, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi pointed out that Pakistan has not given up on terrorism. He also dismissed the issue of Pakistan hosting the SAARC Summit by saying that there was no consensus among the member states on that. This enraged Pakistan’s foreign ministry. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Asim Iftikhar blamed India for holding the SAARC Summit to ransom.

‘India’s myopic attitude was rendering an organisation like SAARC increasingly dysfunctional. The artificial barrier created by India will soon be removed and the SAARC summit will be held,’ Asim Iftikhar said. It is noteworthy that SAARC cooperation has suddenly become essential to Pakistan, which has played a pivotal role in preventing the establishment of political and economic cooperation among SAARC member states. Analysts say that Pakistan wanted to organise SAARC to recognise the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

A few weeks ago, Pakistan organised the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the issue of Afghanistan. Pakistan’s leaders were touting it as a ‘huge success’ in their foreign policy. However, no country uttered a word about recognising the Taliban at the conference. Not only that, the Taliban’s foreign minister, who was present at the conference, was not given a seat on the podium, nor were any of the country’s representatives taking photographs with him.

This led to reports that the Taliban were angry with Pakistan. In the aftermath, Taliban terrorists on the Durand line had become aggressive against Pakistan. Against this backdrop, Pakistan had plotted to get the Taliban recognised by organising SAARC. But India seems to have shocked Pakistan by denying it outright.