ISLAMABAD: India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday poured cold water on hopes of progress in Pak-India ties after positive developments on the Kartarpur corridor issue, saying it was not about resumption of bilateral dialogue.

“Bilateral dialogue and Kartarpur corridor are two different things. I’m very happy that for the last 20 years, rather for many years, government of India has been asking for this Kartarpur corridor and for the first time Pakistan responded positively to it. That does not mean that bilateral dialogue would start on this,” Ms Swaraj said while speaking to journalists in Hyderabad, India, on the day Pakistan inaugurated the construction of Kartarpur corridor in the presence of two (Indian) Union cabinet ministers Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri and a minister from Indian Punjab Navjot Singh Sidhu.

The Indian foreign minister had been invited to the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur corridor, but she did not accept the invitation citing her prior commitments.

Links attending Saarc summit in Pakistan to ‘progress on terrorism’

Pakistan has committed to opening the corridor, which would allow Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit the Kartarpur Gurdwara without visas, to narrow the trust deficit with India that has been preventing the resumption of bilateral dialogue.

Indian cabinet’s decision of accepting Pakistani proposal for opening the corridor had created new hopes of thaw in ties.

Ms Swaraj, ignoring the positivity created by progress made on the corridor issue, reiterated that any forward movement in ties was “firmly linked to Pakistani action on Indian terrorism concerns”.

“Terror and talks cannot go together. The moment Pakistan stops terrorist activities in India, the dialogue can start. Dialogue is not only connected with Kartarpur,” she said, adding that she was the one who started the ‘bilateral comprehensive dialogue’, but the effort was scuttled by the Pathankot and Uri incidents.

She called for looking at the “big picture”.

Pakistan has always denied the terrorism allegations and has on multiple occasions extended hand of friendship to India, which the latter has always rebuffed.

Foreign Office spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal, while talking to Dawn, said Pakistan had steadfastly pursued peace with India because it had the clarity that issues in ties had to be discussed through dialogue. He hoped that opening of the Kartarpur corridor would eventually open up other avenues for improving Pak-India ties.

Responding to a question about India not agreeing to attend the Saarc summit in Pakistan, Ms Swaraj said Delhi was not responding “positively to it” and would not do so till the alleged support for terrorism ceased.

“Unless and until Pakistan stops terrorist activity in India, there will be no dialogue and we will not participate in Saarc summit,” she maintained.

Pakistan was to host the Saarc summit in November 2016, but refusal by India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Bhutan forced the postponement of the meeting. India’s continued refusal to attend a summit in Islamabad is preventing Saarc from again scheduling the summit.

While inaugurating construction work on the Kartarpur corridor, Prime Minister Imran Khan said: “India and Pakistan need to forget everything and move ahead. We need to move ahead. Our past is stopping us from moving ahead”.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2018