Last Updated: April 21, 2023, 17:52 IST
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attends a meeting with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on January 30, 2023. (AFP)
Pakistan on Thursday announced that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would travel to India in May to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting
Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is scheduled to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council meeting in India next month, said his participation reflects Islamabad’s commitment to the charter of the SCO.
The Pakistani minister added his visit to India should not be seen in terms of bilateral ties, according to Dunya News.
“We are committed to the SCO charter and this visit should not be seen as a bilateral one but in the context of the SCO,” Bilawal reportedly said responding to a question on a programme on Dunya News.
Pakistan on Thursday announced that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would travel to India in May to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting, a development that could provide an opportunity to break the ice between the two neighbours.
“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,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch said.
She said the foreign minister would be attending the meeting as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had invited him to attend the SCO moot.
“Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO Charter and processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” Baloch said.
The meeting would be the highest-level visit to India by any Pakistani leader in recent years and a possible opportunity to break the ice between the two nations.
Then Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited India in 2011. In May 2014, then-Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif visited India to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.
The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.
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