SAARC without Pakistan becomes a reality in New York in 2019

On Thursday, in show of petulance and childishness, Pakistan's ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf party announced that their Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would not attend the meeting of the foreign ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in New York as the Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was about to make a statement in that forum.

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Meeting starts without the Pakistan Foreign Minister

This was supposed to be an informal luncheon meeting with all SAARC member nations in attendance. However, the event commenced without the presence of Pakistan. Qureshi entered the meeting only after Jaishankar left the venue - a display similar to his boycott of the OIC recently as late former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was invited as chief guest. Since the last few years, India has made persistent efforts to isolate Pakistan in every possible multilateral forum over the terrorism it continuously perpetrates from its soil. Recently, India invited the leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) for PM Modi's swearing-in ceremony in May 2019. This was in contrast to 2014 when the PM had extended invitation to the SAARC leadership instead. BIMSTEC includes most nations that are SAARC constituents, though not Pakistan.

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Jaishankar's remarks at the BRICS meet

Earlier, Jaishankar addressed the BRICS Ministerial meeting where he underlined the need to fight against economic offenders. Furthermore, he welcomed the establishment of subgroups on capacity building countering the use of the Internet for terror purposes, countering radicalization and addressing terror funding. He also reiterated India's commitment pertaining to climate change. 

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"We, in the BRICS need to continue to work together against economic offenders. It has emerged as a serious threat to the developing economies by illegally diverting assets away from the developmental agenda. We look forward to your continued attention and support on this issue. Speaking of the key issues on the UNGA agenda, I want to highlight that PM Modi participated in the 2019 Climate Action Summit and reiterated our continued commitment to fight against climate change. India has announced the start of a large-scale national campaign to address plastic waste pollution and called for the stop to single-use of plastic. India has also hosted the COP14 to the UNCCD earlier this month. India looks forward to working on various themes and with all relevant stakeholders during India’s presidency of COP from 2019 to 2021," he said.

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