An Indian all-party delegation led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and a Pakistani team headed by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari are set to be in the US at around the same time this week to muster support for their countries from American lawmakers and political leaders.
The all-party delegation led by Tharoor is headed back to the US after travelling to Guyana, Panama, Colombia and Brazil and is set to arrive in Washington on June 3. The delegation, which includes BJP lawmaker Bhubaneshwar Kalita, Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora and former diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu, had begun its engagements with a trip to New York last month.
The nine-member delegation led by Bhutto-Zardari, which includes former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, former information minister Sherry Rehman, former defence minister Khurram Dastgir Khan and former foreign secretaries Jalil Abbas Jilani and Tehmina Janjua, is set to visit New York and Washington from June 2, according to a readout from Pakistan’s foreign ministry. This delegation will also travel to London and Brussels.
While it could not immediately be ascertained whether the Indian and Pakistani delegations will be in the same city at the same time, Tharoor and Bhutto-Zardari are known for their skills in engaging with the media and other interlocutors. While in New York last month, Tharoor said at an interaction with think tanks and the media that India has demonstrated Pakistan will have to pay an increasingly higher price for backing terror attacks against the country since Islamabad has not shown any seriousness about tackling terrorism.
