The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit is scheduled to take place in Islamabad, and Pakistan has sent an invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to a statement released by the Foreign Office spokesman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch on Thursday.
On October 15–16, Pakistan is scheduled to host the SCO heads of government conference. Before the event, there will be a ministerial meeting and multiple rounds of discussions with top officials from the SCO member nations, focusing on financial, economic, socio-cultural, and humanitarian cooperation. A representative from the Foreign Office acknowledged that the country has invited the heads of state to attend the summit at a weekly press briefing.
The Foreign Office spokeswoman revealed that the nation has invited the heads of state to attend the summit during a weekly press briefing. She noted, “An invitation has also been sent to India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi,” and mentioned that a few nations had already confirmed their attendance. “The country that has confirmed will be notified in due course,” she continued.
The official responded, “Pakistan does not have direct bilateral trade with India,” when questioned about relations with that country. Furthermore, according to the spokesperson, Pakistan’s foreign secretary attended the 50th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), which took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on August 29 and 30.
She stated that the foreign secretary would give Pakistan’s viewpoint on Gaza and Jammu and Kashmir there and that he would also talk about “terrorism and other global issues” at the meeting. “Pakistan strongly condemned Israel’s bombing of a historic mosque in Khan Younis,” Baloch continued.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the foreign minister at the time, traveled to India in May of last year to attend the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers meeting. In nearly a decade, he was the first foreign minister from Pakistan to travel to India. Later that month, Bhutto-Zardari described her decision to attend the event as a “productive and positive decision” to a Senate hearing.
“I have concluded from the trip that it was a worthwhile and constructive choice to take part in the event in terms of the Kashmir issue, bilateral issues between Pakistan and India, and the responsibilities of multilateralism,” he said.
