India’s plan to ‘isolate’ Pakistan appears to be nothing more than a mere declaration aimed for Indian public consumption, and the recent Indian move to boycott the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, planned to be held in Islamabad but now postponed, was another one of these cosmetic measures. The fact that India through its diplomatic muscle was able to persuade four other SAARC members, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka to decline participation speaks more about India’s regional influence through, for the most part, its aid, investments, and trade into these countries rather than any skilful diplomatic manoeuvring on its part. Not only does this portray India as country that is aggressively bent on exacerbating the South Asian crisis, but it also reflects Indian refusal to even talk. While SAARC is an organisation that has largely failed to develop into anything substantial, but it did provide a platform for the member states to engage with each other diplomatically. Much more specifically to Pakistan and India, the scheduled SAARC summit was an opportunity for the heads of two states to meet, if not on its sidelines then in the summit itself, and this would have opened a door for the initiation of some dialogue. Unfortunately, the Bharatiya Janata Party- (BJP) led government decided to pander to the jingoistic sentiment in its country, and chose belligerence over steps towards meaningful engagement. It is true that Pakistan is far from getting isolated, something that India does not want its public to know. The biggest regional power, China, remains on Pakistan’s side, and with the Chinese money pouring into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan can be assured of Chinese support. Even the emerging regional economy, Iran, has expressed a desire to be part of CPEC, given the tremendous potential for its hydrocarbon exports into China if CPEC is also linked to Iran. Moreover, Pakistan has recently made inroads towards a closer relationship with Russia, and this has the potential to develop greater trade and connectivity between the two countries. When it comes to the Gulf countries, Pakistan continues to enjoy good relations with them despite Pakistan’s refusal to provide military support to Saudi Arabia in its war against the Houthis in Yemen. Hence, even at the regional level, Pakistan’s present standing shows that India is very far from isolating Pakistan. And at the global level, while India does enjoy influence, mostly because of the size of its economy and the potential market it offers, the United State’s refrain from picking sides and its appeal to both sides to resolve the crisis shows that Pakistan is still an important member of the global community. However, this should be a moment for Pakistan to introspect and determine how it can effectively present itself to the international community. When it comes to the global stage, perceptions matter tremendously, and unfortunately for Pakistan, its image as a country plagued with terrorism and intolerance has made most of its appeals to the international community fall on deaf ears. It is for this reason that the refusal of five SAARC members to not attend the conference in Islamabad has sent the wrong signal to the international community. In light of this, Pakistan needs an effective foreign policy, and for that to happen it needs a full time foreign minister who is able to counter Indian lobbying in the international community and present Pakistan’s case to the world. Pakistan is in urgent need of rebranding itself, and this cannot take place unless government takes the matter of making and articulating foreign policy seriously, highlighting Pakistan’s issues and honestly packaging its potential and promise. Pakistan does not need to show its soft power to the world. Pakistan simply needs to present its real strength to the world — a dynamic country of almost 200 million people who despite governmental flaws, personal blunders, short-sightedness, haphazard policies, economic problems, and issues of extremism and terrorism go about their lives as decent human beings, and whose individual pain is never above the collective good of the nation.*