ISLAMABAD: Indian authorities announced on Friday their External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will visit Pakistan amid frosty relations between the two countries to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit scheduled for this month.
This will be the first visit by an Indian external affairs minister to Pakistan in nearly a decade, though it is unclear whether he will meet Pakistani officials on the sidelines of the event.
Relations between India and Pakistan hit a major low in 2019 when New Delhi revoked Article 370, which granted special autonomy to Muslim-majority state of Kashmir.
Jaishankar’s visit comes at a time when India has held elections in the disputed Himalayan region, a process criticized by Pakistan as illegitimate and an attempt to normalize its control over the territory.
“The external affairs minister will lead a delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on October 15 and 16,” Indian external affairs ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal announced during a news conference.
The South Asian neighbors have fought three wars, including two over control of the disputed Kashmir region in the Himalayas. New Delhi accuses Islamabad of aiding and abetting Islamist militants fighting Indian rule in the region, a charge Pakistan denies.
The last high-level visit between the two countries took place in May 2023 when Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Pakistan’s foreign minister at the time, attended the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in India’s coastal state of Goa.
While Bhutto-Zardari did not meet any Indian leaders, he and Jaishankar used the forum to trade blame for their frosty ties.
- With input from Reuters
