S Jaishankar to visit Pakistan for SCO meet

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will lead an Indian delegation to Islamabad for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on October 15 and 16. This will be the first high-level visit from India to Pakistan in several years.

The last External Affairs Minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj in 2015. After that Rajnath Singh, the then Home Minister, had visited the neighbouring country in August 2016.

Like Swaraj and Rajnath, Jaishankar will be in Pakistan for a multilateral meeting. However, since Rajnath’s visit many things have changed, notably the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019 that led to a protest from Pakistan. Also, India conducted two surgical strikes in Pakistan — in September 2016 and in February 2019.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that Jaishankar would lead a delegation to Pakistan to attend the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting. “He will lead our delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit, being held in Islamabad on October 15 and 16,” said Jaiswal.

When asked if Islamabad had sought a meeting with Jaishankar, Jaiswal said, “So far, we can only say that the minister is travelling to Pakistan for the SCO meeting. If there is a change, we will let you know.”

Pakistan had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the meeting in August.

The move to send Jaishankar for the meeting is being seen as a major decision by the government given the chill in the ties between the two countries since the terrorist attack in Pulwama in February 2019. It was followed by air strikes at a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Balakot.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly last week, Jaishankar had termed Pakistan as a “dysfunctional nation” coveting the lands of others. “It must be exposed and must be countered,” he had said.

Given all this, Jaishankar’s attendance at the summit is being viewed as a display of India’s commitment to the SCO, which, it believes, is playing a vital role in regional security cooperation.

Apart from India, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as member countries. It 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’s association with the SCO began in 2005 as an observer country. It became a permanent member, along with Pakistan, in 2017.

India was the chair of the SCO last year. It hosted the summit in the virtual format in July last year.

Major decision

• The move to send the EAM for the meeting is being seen as a major decision by the government given the chill in the ties between the two nations since the 2019 Pulwama attack
• Jaishankar’s attendance will highlight India’s commitment to the SCO, which, it believes, is playing a vital role in regional security cooperation