File photo of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting being hosted by India next month, the Foreign Office announced on Thursday.
“Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will be leading the Pakistan delegation to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers being held on May 4-5, 2023, in Goa, India,” FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch told a weekly press briefing. She said the foreign minister was attending the summit at the invitation of his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, who is also the current chairman of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers.
India, earlier this year, had extended an invite to Pakistan’s foreign minister for the SCO meeting, suggesting a thaw in frosty relations between the rival nations. It had followed shortly after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for talks between Pakistan and India to resolve all pending issues, including the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir. In his speech, the premier had stressed that talks on Kashmir cannot take place until the “illegal” actions of Aug. 5, 2019—when Delhi unilaterally abrogated the special constitutional status of the disputed region—have been reversed.
Bhutto-Zardari’s visit would mark the first time a Pakistani minister has visited India since 2011, when then-foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar had traveled to the neighboring state.
The SCO currently has eight member countries—China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—as well as four observer states interested in acceding to full membership—Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia—and six Dialogue Partners—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkiye.
In her media briefing, the FO spokesperson clarified that Pakistan’s participation in the SCO meeting reflected the country’s commitment to the forum’s charters and processes, adding it also showed the importance Islamabad accorded to the region in its foreign policy priorities. “Pakistan continues to participate in SCO meetings in keeping with our longstanding commitment to SCO,” she added.