India being invited to attend the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) foreign ministers' meeting on March 1 at Abu Dhabi as a guest of honour rights a historic wrong, says former Indian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Talmiz Ahmad in a conversation with Ramananda Sengupta.
In, what Ambassador Talmiz termed a 50-year-old diplomatic low point, India was formally invited to the first summit of the group in Rabat in 1969 but Pakistan's opposition led to our delegation being abruptly denied entry and evicted from the city.
India, despite having the second largest Muslim population in the world, was denied membership of the group from then on. Pakistan used the platform to regularly launch virulent anti-India tirades.
Against this backdrop, Talmiz, one of India's most distinguished diplomats, who served as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (2000-03; 2010-11); Oman (2003-04), and the UAE (2007-10), explains why this invitation is not only a major blow to Pakistan, but also a “remarkable breakthrough” with India now being formally welcomed into the Muslim mainstream.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, will open the meeting in the presence of the OIC Secretary-General, Dr Yousef Al-Othaimeen, with the participation of 56 Member States and five observer States, as well as “the friendly Republic of India with all its international political weight and diverse cultural heritage, and an important Islamic component, as a guest of honor,” said a release issued by the UAE government.