Pakistan has invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a major regional summit, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), set to take place in Islamabad this October. This could be a big moment for the relationship between these two neighboring countries, which have had a tense history for decades. But the big question is: Will this actually help bring India and Pakistan closer?
An expert in international relations from Pakistan, Shahzad Masood Roomi, believes that the invitation could be part of Pakistan’s attempt to improve its ties with India. Roomi, who edits a strategic affairs website called Global Conflict Watch, says that the strained relations between the two countries have gotten even more complicated over the last 20 years. While Kashmir has always been the main issue, other problems, like terrorism and water disputes, have added more tension.
Still, Roomi thinks the SCO summit is an important chance for India and Pakistan to potentially start talking. But even if Prime Minister Modi attends the meeting, it doesn’t necessarily mean he will sit down with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for a one-on-one discussion. The Sharif government is under a lot of pressure at home because of economic problems, so improving relations with India could help them show some success. However, whether this will actually work remains to be seen.
Another expert, Syed Khalid Muhammad, who heads a think tank in Pakistan called CommandEleven, sees the invitation as another effort to normalize relations between the two countries. For Pakistan, the main issue remains Kashmir, and without a resolution on that, it’s hard to imagine relations improving. India, on the other hand, is deeply concerned about cross-border terrorism in Kashmir, which it believes Pakistan is involved in, making peace even harder to achieve.
Diplomatic relations between the two nations have been frozen since 2019, when India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Both countries claim the region, but they each control different parts of it.
For now, the best option, according to Muhammad, is for both sides to work on a plan that tackles the issues keeping them apart. If they can overcome these challenges, perhaps they can finally start bringing peace to these two nuclear-armed neighbors. But whether this invitation will lead to any real progress remains a mystery.
