New Delhi (National Times) India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Friday said that the era of “uninterrupted dialogue” with Pakistan is over while saying that New Delhi will respond to developments “whether positive or negative”.

“So far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned, Article 370 is done. The issue [now] is what kind of relationship we can contemplate with Pakistan,” the Indian media quoted him as saying at a private event.
“What I do want to say is that we are not passive, and whether events take a positive or a negative direction, either way, we will react,” Jaishankar added.

The remarks in the wake of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting to be hosted by Pakistan in October.

A day earlier, the Pakistan’s Foreign Office confirmed that Islamabad extended invitations to all heads of government of the member states, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite strained ties.

The SCO, led by Russia and China, is a crucial multilateral platform for India, primarily for regional security and collaboration with Central Asian nations.

India views the SCO as an essential forum for engaging with these countries, despite its cautious approach to China’s influence within the organisation. Unlike other member states, India has consistently refused to endorse China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has been a point of contention in SCO joint statements.

Pakistan downgraded its ties with India after the Modi-led government unilaterally changed the special status of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in August 2019 — the decision that Islamabad believed undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours.

Islamabad has linked its decision to normalising ties with New Delhi with the restoration of the special status of the IIOJK.

Despite the frosty ties, the two countries agreed to renew the 2003 ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) in February 2021.