External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday clarified that he will not hold a dialogue with Pakistan during his upcoming visit to the country to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) conclave.
"It (visit) will be for a multilateral event. I'm not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I'm going there to be a good member of the SCO," he said at the sidelines of an event in the national capital.
"But, you know, since I'm a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself accordingly," he added.
S Jaishankar also took a veiled dig at Pakistan, holding it responsible for the derailment of the SAARC initiative.
"At the moment SAARC is not moving forward, we haven't had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason - there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross-border terrorism at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more... Terrorism is something which is unacceptable and despite a global view of it if one of our neighbours continues to do it - there cannot be business as usual in SAARC. That's the reason why the SAARC meeting has not happened in recent years - but it doesn't mean that the regional activities have stopped. In fact, in the last 5-6 years, we have seen far more regional integration in the Indian subcontinent," he added.
Also read: Jaishankar will travel to Islamabad for SCO meet
India maintains that it will not hold bilateral dialogues with Pakistan until the latter stops breeding and fostering cross-border terrorism.
{{/usCountry}}India maintains that it will not hold bilateral dialogues with Pakistan until the latter stops breeding and fostering cross-border terrorism.
{{/usCountry}}India on Friday announced that the minister will travel to Pakistan to attend a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in mid-October.
It will be for the first time in nearly nine years that India's external affairs minister will travel to Pakistan even as the ties between the two neighbours remain frosty over cross-border terrorism.
Pakistan is hosting the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting on October 15 and 16.
Also read: S Jaishankar reacts to fresh Middle East crisis: ‘We understand Israel needs to respond, but…’
The last Indian external affairs minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. She had travelled to Islamabad in December 2015 to attend a conference on Afghanistan.
The announcement on Jaishankar's visit was made by external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
Also read: ‘Break the ice’: Hurriyat's Mirwaiz calls for constructive Indo-Pak dialogue at SCO meet
"The external affairs minister will lead our delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on October 15 and 16," he said at his weekly media briefing.
With inputs from PTI, ANI