WASHINGTON:
Head of a high-level parliamentary delegation Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday said US President Donald Trump should encourage India to engage in a “comprehensive dialogue” with Pakistan.
The delegation is visiting Washington DC to present Islamabad’s position following a recent military standoff with New Delhi.
Weeks after their worst military confrontation in decades, India and Pakistan have dispatched top lawmakers to press their cases in the United States, where President Donald Trump has shown eagerness for diplomacy between them.
After crisscrossing the world, the delegations descended this week at the same time on Washington, which played a key mediatory role in a ceasefire after four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed adversaries in May.
In strikingly similar strategies, the rival delegations are both led by veteran politicians who have been critical of their countries’ governments and are known for their ease in speaking to Western audiences.
Pakistan has embraced an active role for the Trump administration while India, which has close relations with Washington, has been more circumspect and has long refused outside mediation on the Kashmir dispute.
“Just like the United States and President Trump played a role in encouraging us to achieve this ceasefire, I believe they should play their part in encouraging both sides to engage in a comprehensive dialogue,” said former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose Pakistan People’s Party says it belongs neither to the governing coalition nor opposition.
“I don’t quite understand the Indian government’s hesitance,” Bilawal told AFP.
“I’m the first to criticise the United States for so many reasons, but where they do the right thing, where they do the difficult task of actually achieving a ceasefire, they deserve appreciation.”
Bilawal, recalling how his mother, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a terror attack, said Pakistan was ready to discuss terrorism with India but that Kashmir as a “root cause” also needed to be on the table.
He said that India was establishing a dangerous new precedent in South Asia where whenever there is a terrorist attack in any country, “you go straight to war”.
“I think that the fate of 1.7 billion people and our two great nations should not left in the hands of these nameless, faceless, non-state actors and this new normal that India is trying to impose on the region,” he said.
The two delegations have no plans to meet in Washington.
NEW NORMAL
Trump has repeatedly credited his administration with averting nuclear war and said the United States had negotiated an agreement to hold talks between the two sides at a neutral site, an assertion that met India’s silence.
India’s delegation is led by one of its most prominent opposition politicians, Shashi Tharoor, a former senior UN official and writer.
He said he was putting the national interest first, despite disagreements domestically with Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tharoor said he heard “total support and solidarity for India” during his meetings with US lawmakers and a “complete understanding of India’s right to defend itself against terrorism.”
Tharoor also noted that former Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto Zardari’s father, had advocated peace with India but was in power during the siege of Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
“If they can’t control what they’re doing to us, why bother to talk to them?” said Tharoor, who pointed to the outsized role of the military in Pakistan.
A high-level Pakistani parliamentary delegation, led by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari met with US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker, the Pakistan Embassy in Washington said in Tweet on Friday.
During the meeting, Bilawal appreciated the role played by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in facilitating the Pakistan-India ceasefire expressed the hope that it would create space for sustainable peace and stability in South Asia through dialogue.
“Pakistan delegation held a productive meeting with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker,” the embassy said on X. “The delegation shared its concern over India’s unprovoked aggression, continued hostile rhetoric, and unlawful suspension of IWT [Indus Water Treaty],” it added.
(With additional input from News Desk)
