S Jaishankar will visit Pakistan later this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, becoming the first foreign minister to do so in nine years. The last visit was by Sushma Swaraj in 2015.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that Mr Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan to attend the meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Mr Jaiswal stressed that 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. He emphasized that the visit would be limited to attending the summit only. Pakistan had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a meeting in August.
The decision to send Mr Jaishankar to Pakistan for the summit is being seen as a major decision by the Central government in view of the deterioration in relations between the two countries since the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019, which was followed by the Balakot airstrike. There were attacks. In which India targeted the training camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed. Relations became even more strained when Pakistan vocally opposed India’s removal of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
India has repeatedly criticized Pakistan’s interference in the issue and reiterated that it is an internal matter.
Addressing the UN General Assembly last week, Mr Jaishankar had warned Pakistan that its policy of cross-border terrorism could never succeed and also referred to its economic crisis.
The minister said, “Many countries are left behind due to circumstances beyond their control. But some people make deliberate choices which have disastrous consequences. A prime example of this is our neighboring country Pakistan. Unfortunately, their misdeeds affect others. “Also affect the neighborhood, especially.”
demonstration of commitment
Given all this, the fact that Mr Jaishankar will attend the summit in the country is being seen as a demonstration of India’s commitment to the SCO, which it believes plays a vital role in promoting regional security cooperation. Is fulfilling. Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan in 2015 to attend a conference on Afghanistan.
Apart from India, SCO has China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as member states and is an influential economic and security bloc as well as one of the largest inter-regional international organizations.
The SCO was founded in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan at a summit in Shanghai and India was an observer country for the first time in 2005. It became a permanent member along with Pakistan. , in 2017.
India was the chair of the organization in 2023 and hosted the SCO summit in virtual format in July the same year.
The SCO Council of Heads of Government conclave, which Mr Jaishankar will attend, is the second highest forum in the grouping, while the Heads of State summit is the topmost forum and is usually attended by the Prime Minister.
