Bilawal Bhutto-led Pakistani delegation in London for diplomatic outreach
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 (June 9, 2025) night 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 on 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.
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: Jalil Abbas Jilani, Khuran Dastagir Khan (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz or PML-N) and Hina Rabbani Khar (PPP). It also included PPP vice-chair Sherry Rehman (PPP), Climate minister Musadik Masoor Malik (PML-N) and Adeel Mumtaz who directs the India desk at the Pakistani foreign ministry. Members of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party were not part of the group.
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.
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