ISLAMABAD: Foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will be leading the Pakistan team to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting starting in Goa today, Thursday, the first visit by a top Pakistani government official to India in years.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been fraught for years and they have fought three wars, two of them over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.
Bhutto-Zardari’s visit will be the first one by a high-profile Pakistani official since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended Indian PM Narendra Modi's swearing-in in 2014 and de facto Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz went to Amritsar in December 2016 to attend the Heart of Asia conference.
Earlier this year, Pakistan’s foreign office confirmed India’s invitation to its foreign minister to attend the SCO meeting.
“Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will be leading the Pakistan delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) being held on 4-5 May 2023 in Goa, India,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said.
“The Foreign Minister is attending the SCO CFM meeting at the invitation of the current Chair of SCO CFM, Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister for External Affairs of the Republic of India.”
India has for years accused Pakistan of helping separatists who have battled Indian security forces in its part of Kashmir since the late 1980s. Pakistan denies the accusation and says it only provides diplomatic and moral support for Kashmiris seeking self-determination.
Violence in the region has eased recently although the neighbours have not sat down for talks on any major issues in years.
The SCO is an eight-member political and security bloc that includes Russia and China.
