External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will be visiting Pakistan on Tuesday, October 15, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting. This visit is the first of the kind by an Indian Foreign Secretary in years due to tensions between the two South Asian neighbors. The meeting in Islamabad is important because relations between the two countries are currently sour, especially concerning matters such as Kashmir and terrorism.
The Council of the Heads of Government (CHG) of the SCO is set to convene for the 23rd time in two sessions on the agenda of cooperation within the organization and related to economics, trade, environment, and socio-cultural relations. It will also consider the performance of the Strategic Capability of the Organization and the establishment of its strategic direction. Pakistan has just become the Chair of the SCO CHG for the year 2023-24 at the Bishkek meeting in October 2023, thus highlighting its importance on the group.
After that, he landed in Islamabad; according to expectations, he will participate in greeting the banquet reception of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to SCO member countries’ representatives. Nevertheless, political diplomats of the two countries have asserted that no meeting between Jaishankar and Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s minister of finance, will take place at the Summit.
This visit is quite remarkable, given that it took almost nine years for the Indian foreign minister to step into Pakistan’s soil. Although they have no friendly relations now, this visit also shows readiness to interact within the frameworks of the international organization like the SCO. People will keenly monitor the outcomes of this summit to see if it sets the ground for another round of talks between the two countries despite many existing strains in their relations.
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