It is for the first time that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will be representing India at a meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in the UAE. According to people who are aware of the developments on Thursday said that Swaraj is expected to raise the issue of terror.
On March 1, Sushma Swaraj will address the inaugural Plenary Session of the meeting in Abu Dhabi as a guest of honour. Officials are of the view that the invitation to India is the result of a successful foreign policy to strengthen the ties with Arab and Muslim-majority countries.
Islamabad has conveyed its distress over New Delhi participation to the OIC in the wake of the Indian air strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camp at Balakot on Tuesday. Acting mostly due to pressure from Pakistan, OIC had condemned the air strike and had described it as an “incursion and aerial violation” and has also urged both countries to seek peaceful solutions to the crisis through dialogue.
Meanwhile, India remains unaffected by the criticism because of the symbolic importance of the invitation from the OIC in the face of opposition from Pakistan who is a founding member of the 56-member group. “There is expected to be a reference to terror by the external affairs minister at OIC...We will attend. Don’t attach much importance to a statement put out by the (OIC) secretariat at the behest of Pakistan to deter us from attending”, said a person familiar with developments.
For the first time in 48 years, fighters jets from India entered Pakistani air space for an operation and attacked the major terror camps and also completely destroyed them. The air-strike came as a act of retaliation to the Pulwama Terror atack in which 40 CRPF Jawans were killed in a suicide attack. As per sources, Pakistan based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed the responsibility of the attack.