After generating days of excitement in the media, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit finally concluded with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar making a quick visit to Islamabad. For all the speculation about India and Pakistan, in the end, what the 23rd meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the SCO will likely be remembered for is perhaps Jaishankar’s sunglasses. In this age of intense social media scrutiny, a small clip, now viral, of Jaishankar sporting his sunglasses in style became symbolic of India’s confidence in dealing with Pakistan. Hilarious though this might seem, all that is left of Pakistan in Indian foreign policy imagination today is decoding our diplomats’ style and body language. But, of course, in sending Jaishankar to Islamabad for the SCO summit, New Delhi was also sending out a message about keeping its engagement with its SCO partners intact. Last year, when Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited Goa to participate in the SCO meeting, he became the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India since 2011. And now, Jaishankar was the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in around a decade. These visits though were largely inconsequential in the wider scheme of bilateral ties between the two neighbours.
Terrorism Continues To Upset Things
Established in 2001 and including Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran, the SCO is a Eurasian grouping that started out as a platform to deal with regional security challenges like extremism and terrorism. It later expanded to facilitating trade and investment and strengthening economic ties.