India on Friday announced that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit Pakistan in mid-October to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.
This announcement was made by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
The last Indian External Affairs Minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. She visited Islamabad in December 2015 to attend a conference on Afghanistan.
Pakistan is hosting the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting on October 15 and 16.
“The External Affairs Minister will lead our delegation to Pakistan to attend the SCO summit to be held in Islamabad on October 15 and 16,” Mr Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.
The spokesperson clarified that the External Affairs Minister is visiting Pakistan only to attend the SCO summit.
In August, Pakistan had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the SCO summit.
Mr Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan is important as it is being seen as a major decision from New Delhi.
The decision to send the senior minister is being seen as a demonstration of India’s commitment to the SCO which has been playing an important role in promoting regional security cooperation.
Relations between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after Indian warplanes attacked the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot, Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.
Relations deteriorated further after India announced on August 5, 2019, the withdrawal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special powers and bifurcation of the state into two union territories.
India has been saying that it desires normal neighborly relations with Pakistan, while insisting that the onus lies on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such engagement.
The SCO Council of Heads of Government Conclave is the second highest forum in the grouping.
The SCO Heads of State Summit is the highest forum of the group which is usually attended by the Indian Prime Minister.
The SCO, which includes India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is an influential economic and security bloc that has emerged as one of the largest inter-regional international organizations.
India was the chairperson of SCO last year. It had hosted the SCO summit in July last year in a virtual format.
India’s association with the SCO began in 2005 as an observer country. It became a full member country of the SCO at the Astana summit in 2017.
India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its Regional Counter-Terrorism Framework (RATS), particularly related to security and defence-related issues.
The SCO was founded in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan at a summit in Shanghai.
In 2017, Pakistan became its permanent member along with India.
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