Pakistan’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday that its foreign minister will attend the meeting of foreign ministers from SCO member countries on May 4 and 5 in India.
The Pakistani team will be led to the meeting in Goa by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the ministry said.
“FM Bilawal Bhutto will lead a team to the SCO-CFM meeting that will take place in Goa, India, on May 4 and 5, 2023. The Foreign Minister’s attendance at the meeting shows that Pakistan is still committed to the SCO Charter and its processes and that the region is important to Pakistan’s foreign policy goals, the Pakistan Ministry tweeted on Thursday.
FM @BBhuttoZardari will lead 🇵🇰delegation to SCO-CFM meeting being held on 4-5 May 2023 in Goa,India. FM’s participation in Meeting reflects 🇵🇰’s continued commitment to SCO Charter & processes & the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities.
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) April 20, 2023
Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office, told the media at a weekly briefing, “Our participation in the meeting shows Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO Charter and processes and how important the region is to Pakistan’s foreign policy.”
She said that the Pakistani foreign minister would be there because External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had asked him to come.
It would be the most important trip to India by a Pakistani leader in recent years, and it could be a chance for the two countries to start talking again.
In February 2019, in reaction to the Pulwama terror attack, India’s warplanes bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot, Pakistan. This put a lot of strain on the relationship between India and Pakistan.
India announced in August 2019 that Jammu and Kashmir would lose its special powers and be split into two Union regions. This made things even worse between the two countries. The SCO was started by the leaders of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan at a summit in Shanghai in 2001.
The SCO is made up of China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. At the moment, India is in charge of the group.
In 2017, India and Pakistan joined the SCO as regular members. The SCO is based in Beijing.
