SCO summit: Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in rare trip

ISLAMABAD: Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will visit Pakistan on October 15 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

This will be the first visit for an Indian Minister for External Affairs since 2015, when Indian External Minister late Sushma Swaraj attended a security conference on Afghanistan in Islamabad and held meetings with senior officials and politicians.

On Friday, the spokesperson at the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal told a media briefing, “EAM Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan for the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on 15th and 16th October.“

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad had announced that it had on August 26, sent a formal invitation to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the summit meeting of the heads of state and government of the SCO, scheduled in October in Islamabad.

The invite to Modi from Pakistan was made after eight years when he had been invited for a SAARC summit in Islamabad but one that he boycotted, leaving the regional grouping in limbo.

Modi seldom attends these SCO meetings and even in the past has been represented by his External Minister.

Pakistan at present holds the rotating chairmanship of “one of the largest trans-regional international organisations,“ will see the SCO preceded by a ministerial meeting and several rounds of senior officials meetings.

“Though Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan is about multilateral diplomacy more than bilateral relations, the significance for India-Pakistan ties shouldn’t be overlooked. The decision is undoubtedly motivated more by India’s commitment to the SCO than to a desire to move the needle forward on relations with Pakistan,” commented Michael Kugelman, Director, South Asia Institute.

The SCO which includes India, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Iran and Uzbekistan with India and Pakistan joining the group in 2017.

Heads of state and government are expected in Islamabad but the Foreign Office says it will make public the list when all acceptances have been made.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif attended the May 2023 SCO meeting in Goa by video link.

The then foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had visited India to attend the two-day meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers, becoming the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in almost 12 years.

Bilawal did not hold a bilateral meeting with his India counterpart and reports from Delhi indicating that it is unlikely that Jaishankar will hold any bilateral meeting with Pakistani officials.

The arrival of an Indian minister to Pakistan has created quite a buzz in the region.

Pravin Sawhney, a political commentator tweeted, “Tragedy of South Asia is that India does not understand importance of Pakistan in the new global geopolitical. Worse, Pakistan does not understand its own importance. Since 2016 when India ended SAARC by refusing to attend its summit in Islamabad, Pakistan with support of CPEC had the opportunity to foster greater cooperation within South Asia. This could have made India rethink its Pakistan policy for fear of strategic isolation in neighborhood”.”

Meanwhile, Vice President of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) and Parliamentary leader of the PPP in the Senate Senator Sherry Rehman said the visit of the Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar to Pakistan for the SCO summit is a positive step and welcomed but suggested that mush expectation should not be attached with this visit.

“The SCO meeting is important event and Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s acceptance of the invitation to attend the meeting is positive and we should welcome it,” she said.

Senator Sherry Rehman said it should be noted that in 2016 India avoided to attend the SAARC summit in Pakistan and if he was coming to attend the SCO summit, it is positive but mush expectations should not be attached with his visit either relating to bilateral relation or any peace initiatives.

In a bid to ensure law and order situation in the federal capital during the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, the federal government approved the deployment of Pakistan Army’s troops in Islamabad under Article 245 of the Constitution.

Islamabad is all set to host the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting on October 15 and 16 with major foreign leaders, including Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visiting the country.

According to the notification — a copy of which is available with Geo News, a “requisite strength” of the Pakistan Army, in aid of civil power, will be deployed from Oct 5 to 17 to maintain law and order situation with respect to SCO moot and visits of VVIP delegations for the said meeting.

“The exact area of deployment along with an additional number of troops, if the requirement arises, will be worked out by Islamabad administration in consultation with concerned stakeholders,” it stated.

The federal government had approved a comprehensive plan to ensure foolproof security during the forthcoming huddle of regional leaders.

During the recent meeting, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said that additional personnel from the Pakistan Army, Rangers, Frontier Corps (FC), and Punjab police will be deployed for security duties at the SCO moot.

In July this year, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch said that the summit would feature a ministerial huddle along with multiple meetings of senior officials to foster cooperation in finance, economics, socio-cultural affairs and humanitarian efforts among member states.

The SCO, comprising India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is a crucial multilateral platform, primarily for regional security and collaboration with Central Asian nations.

India’s Jaishankar will also travel to Pakistan to attend the SCO CHG meeting — which will be the first visit by an Indian foreign minister in nearly a decade.

“The external affairs minister will lead our delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on 15 and 16 October,” said Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for Indian foreign ministry, but did not say if Jaishankar would meet any Pakistani leaders on the sidelines.

Pakistan had extended invitations to all the government heads of the SCO member states, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for the upcoming CHG meeting in Islamabad, Baloch had said.

Saleh Zaafir adds: Appreciating Indian decision to send its External Affairs Minister to represent India in SCO summit, Former foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri reiterated that the two sides should avail the opportunity to improve their tense ties through resuming stalled comprehensive dialogue.

Talking to The News/Jang on Friday, he said that although Indian EAM Jaishankar’s visit is multilateral but the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India could sit on the margins of the summit where some formula of improving the ties between Islamabad and New Delhi could be worked out.

He recalled that late Indian EAM Ms Sushma Sauraj, when visited Islamabad for attending Heart of Asia Conference amid heightened tension, availed the opportunity of meeting her late host counterpart Senator Sartaj Aziz for agreeing restoration of comprehensive talks which were earlier underway as composite dialogue.

Khurshid Kasuri said that Pakistani and Indian delegations had fierce exchange in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) summit last month where Jaishankar resorted to harsh tone. “Keeping the element of unpredictability in ties between our countries, if a positive approach is followed, the relations could be brought back to the path for improvement.”

He expressed the hope that foreign ministers of the two countries could play a constructive role by resorting to positive approach. The former foreign minister reminded that Indian think tanks had been impressing upon Modi government to revive its ties in the region in the wake of Bangladesh backlash.

Kasuri revealed that United Arab Emirates (UAE) played significant role in lowering tension between Pakistan and India when he was foreign minister.

Kasuri, while welcoming Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with Bangladesh Chief Advisor Dr Muhammad Younis on the fringes of the UNGA summit where the two discussed revival and activating Saarc, urged that the prime minister should also take up the matter with visiting Indian MEA since Pakistan has to host next Saarc summit in Islamabad which was due in 2016.