Islamabad: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his visit to India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in India shows his country’s commitment to the SCO’s charter. Bhutto said that this visit should not be seen in the context of bilateral relations. Responding to a question about a program aired on Dunya News on Thursday, he said that he would represent Pakistan at the foreign ministers’ meeting to be held in Goa next month. Bhutto Zardari said, “We are committed to the SCO charter and this visit should not be seen as a bilateral visit but in the context of the SCO.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Bhutto Zardari will lead the Pakistani delegation to the SCO Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting to be held in Goa on May 4-5. Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said during a weekly press conference on Thursday that Bhutto Zardari is attending the SCO-CFM meeting at the invitation of India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. “Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s continued commitment to the SCO charter and process and the importance Pakistan attaches to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” the spokesperson said.
According to the Business Recorder report, Bilawal will be the first foreign minister to visit India after almost 12 years. In 2011, the then Foreign Minister of Pakistan Hina Rabbani Khar visited India.
India has sent invitations to member countries
India has formally sent invitations to all members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, including Pakistan and China, for the upcoming foreign ministers’ meeting. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov are also likely to attend the meeting.
India took over the chairmanship of the 9-member organization in September last year. Major ministerial meetings and summits will be held this year. Relations between India and Pakistan have been uncertain for many years due to issues of cross-border terrorism, even as Islamabad is demanding the restoration of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir before any talks can begin.
Russia, India, China, Pakistan, and four Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are members of this 20-year-old organization.
Iran will participate in the meeting as a full member for the first time
Iran is the newest country to become a member of this organization and will participate in the meeting of the grouping as a full member for the first time under the Indian chairmanship. The last meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the SCO summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The 22nd meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in September 2022 was the first individual summit of SCO leaders since June 2019 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Especially this year’s SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting is taking place in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war and India’s G20 presidency.
