Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) foreign ministers meeting in India on May 4-5. According to a report published by news agency ANI citing Pakistan’s foreign ministry.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch announced it here at a weekly media briefing.
“Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will be leading the Pakistan delegation to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) being held on May 4-5, 2023, in Goa, India.” She said, ending weeks-long speculation if he would attend the conference in person as quoted by PTI.
She said the Pakistan foreign minister would attend the meeting. As External Affairs, Minister S Jaishankar had invited him to attend the SCO meet.
“Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO Charter processes the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” Baloch said
The SCO is a regional political and security bloc whose members include Russia, China, India, and Pakistan.
Therefore they will hold the foreign ministers’ meeting in the western Indian coastal state of Goa.
So, it would be the highest-level visit to India by any Pakistani leader in recent years. Also, a possible opportunity to break the ice between the two nations.
INDIA AND PAKISTAN
The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India’s warplanes.
The relations further deteriorated after India announced the withdrawal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special powers. Also the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into Union territories in August 2019.
The presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan founded the SCO at a summit in Shanghai in 2001.
Over the years, it has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations.
India and Pakistan became permanent members of the Beijing-based SCO in 2017.