At the 23rd meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Islamabad, Pakistan, something unusual caught people’s attention. Two important leaders were there: Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref and India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. But there was one big question—why wasn’t India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi present?
To understand why, we need to look at the bigger picture. Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained for a long time. Back in 2014, when Modi became prime minister, there were hopes that things might improve. However, several major incidents, like the Uri and Pulwama attacks in Kashmir in 2016 and 2019, and the Indian government’s decision to remove Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019, made things much worse.
Because of these tensions, leaders from both countries are now extremely cautious. They avoid making any friendly gestures that could be seen as weakness by the other side. Modi, for in...
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