External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. (PTI Photo)
New Delhi: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar will travel to Pakistan on October 15-16 to attend the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Pakistan had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the SCO summit in Islamabad.
This will be for the first time in nearly nine years that an Indian foreign minister will travel to Pakistan. The last one to do so was the late Sushma Swaraj, who had travelled to Islamabad in December 2015 to attend the fifth Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan. In 2016, Rajnath Singh, then Union home minister, had visited Islamabad to attend the Saarc interior ministers’ meeting.
The external affairs ministry has made it clear that this visit has been scheduled keeping in mind the SCO council of heads of government meeting and no bilateral meetings are lined up as of now with Pakistan.
The visit comes when India-Pakistan relations are at a new low.
“The external affairs minister will lead our delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on October 15 and 16,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said while making the announcement.
Sources said the decision to send Mr Jaishankar was a display of India's commitment to the SCO, which has been playing a key role in boosting regional security cooperation. The SCO council of heads of government conclave is the second-highest platform in the grouping. The SCO heads of state summit is the topmost forum in the grouping, that is generally attended by the Indian Prime Minister.
Pakistan had sent its foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to India in May 2023 to attend an in-person meeting of the foreign ministers of SCO nations in Goa. It was the first visit of a Pakistani foreign minister to India in almost 12 years.
Jaishankar’s visit comes at a time when Pakistan is hosting fugitive Islamic preacher Zakir Naik. Naik is on a month-long tour to Pakistan and was warmly welcomed by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The MEA said it was disappointed but not surprised by this action by Pakistan.
“We are not surprised that a fugitive from Indian justice has received a high-level welcome in Pakistan. It is disappointing and condemnable, but not surprising,” said Jaiswal.
( Source : PTI )
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