India on Friday criticized comments made by Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari during the first visit to its territory by a senior official from Islamabad to India since 2016.
Zardari arrived on Thursday in the Indian coastal state of Goa to participate in a meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization along with his Chinese and Russian counterparts.
Speaking to reporters on Friday on the sidelines of the meeting, Zardari said India's decision to end Jammu and Kashmir's special status in 2019 undermined the environment for talks between the nuclear-armed neighbors, adding that India's responsibility lies with creating a conducive environment for talks.
In his speech at the conference, Bhutto Zardari also called on OIC member states to refrain from "using terrorism as a weapon in order to score diplomatic points."
The Pakistani minister's statement drew criticism from his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who said that "Pakistan's credibility is being depleted much faster than its financial reserves", winking at the channel of Islamabad's economic crisis.
The Indian minister said Bhutto Zardari's statement "reflects the mentality" of Pakistan.
Relations between the two neighboring nuclear powers have been cold at best since the partition of the Indian peninsula in 1947. They are vying for control of Kashmir, which has been the cause of two of their three wars since their inception.
New Delhi accuses Islamabad of supporting insurgents in Indian-controlled Kashmir, which Pakistan denies.
Pakistan suspended trade and diplomatic ties with India in 2019 when New Delhi imposed direct rule over its Muslim-majority Kashmir and implemented strict security measures.
The two countries withdrew their top diplomats, while several consular staff were expelled or withdrawn in reciprocal proceedings.
A senior Pakistani official last visited India in 2016 when he travelled to New Delhi as Sartaj Aziz, then as the prime minister's foreign affairs adviser.
India currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which was founded in 2001 and is a rival political, economic and security organization to Western institutions.