Bilawal Bhutto-led Pakistani delegation in London for diplomatic outreach

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A Pakistani delegation led by former Pakistan Foreign Minister and chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari arrived in London on Sunday from Washington, as part of Islamabad’s diplomatic outreach following recent hostilities between India and Pakistan.

Islamabad’s diplomatic exercise, comprising two delegations, was announced after New Delhi announced that it would send seven delegations to world capitals to convey its outrage over the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 civilians, almost all Indian men, were shot dead by terrorists.

India has also sought to explain ‘Operation Sindoor’, its retaliatory strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and the consequent armed conflict between the two countries as well as the long history of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism on Indian soil.

Both countries’ delegations had overlapped last week in Washington. Pakistan is seeking international involvement in the conflict and a reversal of India’s decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in “abeyance.”

The Pakistani delegation in London included three other former Foreign Ministers.

The delegation was scheduled to speak on-the-record at the think tank IISS. It was also scheduled to speak off the record on Monday morning at Chatham House, prior to the IISS event, and hold meetings at the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in the afternoon according to a source familiar with the delegation schedule. The delegation is expected to travel to Brussels after London.

Ahead of their closed door bilateral discussions in New Delhi on Saturday, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had told his UK counterpart David Lammy that India practiced a “zero tolerance policy” with regard to terrorism and “expected its partners to understand it”.

In London, Washington and other capitals, India’s delegations had been keen to emphasise, last week, that there could be no equivalence between the perpetrators of terror and its victims.

New Delhi has also pushed back against any third party intervention in the conflict between India and Pakistan, most notably U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated insistence that he brokered the May 10 ceasefire between the countries and used trade as leverage to achieve it.

Mr Lammy remarks in a May 17 Reuters interview from Islamabad, in which he had said the U.K. and U.S. were working on an enduring ceasefire in the region, had raised eyebrows in New Delhi.

Mr Zardari-Bhutto said the U.K. had a “unique” role to play in the situation referring to Britain’s role in Partition, during an interview with Sky TV. Referring to the status quo, Mr Zardari-Bhutto said, “We’ve lowered the conflict threshold between India and Pakistan to the point where any terrorist attack means war.”

India has emphasized that its response has been carefully targeted to avoid escalation. Speaking in Washington last week, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor had said that Pakistan liked to “dangle this nuclear bogey” to make other countries anxious.

Asked during an interview with Sky TV if India taking action unilaterally on the Indus Waters Treaty would still be treated as an act of war, Mr Zardari-Bhutto said “absolutely”.

He also insisted Mr. Trump had intervened to effect a ceasefire and thanked him for it.

Mr Tharoor had also rejected the notion that a third party was responsible for the ceasefire, saying that India needed no motivation to stop the fighting and was ready to stop if Pakistan stopped. He had speculated that Mr Trump may have intervened with the Pakistanis and persuaded them to stop.