A new beginning: SCO meeting can help improve Indo-Pak relations

India's approach to Pakistan in recent years has been to focus on isolating the country as far as possible

An aspect of Indian foreign policy can puzzle observers. That is how it is remarkably willing to join almost any plurilateral grouping. Take the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, for example. It includes both the People’s Republic of China and Pakistan; it seems to run at a tangent to other efforts that India is making in Asia and the Indo-Pacific, including the Quad. But this week showed the importance of such groupings. Bilateral meetings with Pakistan have not been possible for a while; but the fact that the SCO summit was being held in Islamabad allowed a perfect pretext