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The visit will be limited to attending the SCO meeting, says MEA Spokesperson
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation to Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of Government meeting being held in Islamabad on October 15-16, 2024. The visit was announced on Friday (October 4, 2024) by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during the weekly media briefing.
With this visit, Jaishankar will become the first Indian External Affairs Minister to travel to Pakistan in nine years. The last visit was by Sushma Swaraj in 2015. The MEA Spokesperson, however, emphasised that the visit will be limited to attending the summit. “This visit is for the SCO meet, let us leave it at that,” Jaiswal said in response to a query on India-Pakistan bilateral ties.
Incidentally, EAM Jaishankar's visit will take place less than a month after he called out Pakistan over cross-border terrorism at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. “Many countries get left behind due to circumstances beyond their control, but some make conscious choices with disastrous consequences. A premier example is our neighbour, Pakistan," he said on September 28, 2024.
In a hard-hitting statement, EAM Jaishankar said Pakistan’s GDP can only be measured in terms of radicalization and its exports in the form of terrorism. “When this polity instils such fanaticism among its people, its GDP can only be measured in terms of radicalization and its exports in the form of terrorism. Today, we see the ills it sought to visit on others consume its own society. It can’t blame the world; this is only karma,” EAM Dr Jaishankar added.
The SCO comprises India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and is an influential economic and security bloc.
The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India was an observer country for the first time in 2005; it became a permanent member, along with Pakistan, in 2017.
With this visit, Jaishankar will become the first Indian External Affairs Minister to travel to Pakistan in nine years. The last visit was by Sushma Swaraj in 2015. The MEA Spokesperson, however, emphasised that the visit will be limited to attending the summit. “This visit is for the SCO meet, let us leave it at that,” Jaiswal said in response to a query on India-Pakistan bilateral ties.
Incidentally, EAM Jaishankar's visit will take place less than a month after he called out Pakistan over cross-border terrorism at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. “Many countries get left behind due to circumstances beyond their control, but some make conscious choices with disastrous consequences. A premier example is our neighbour, Pakistan," he said on September 28, 2024.
In a hard-hitting statement, EAM Jaishankar said Pakistan’s GDP can only be measured in terms of radicalization and its exports in the form of terrorism. “When this polity instils such fanaticism among its people, its GDP can only be measured in terms of radicalization and its exports in the form of terrorism. Today, we see the ills it sought to visit on others consume its own society. It can’t blame the world; this is only karma,” EAM Dr Jaishankar added.
The SCO comprises India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and is an influential economic and security bloc.
The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India was an observer country for the first time in 2005; it became a permanent member, along with Pakistan, in 2017.
India was the chair of the organisation in 2023 and hosted the SCO summit in the virtual format in July 2023.
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