Pakistan on Thursday said no decision has been taken yet on the visit of its Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to India to attend a high-level meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Bilawal and China’s Qin Gang are among the foreign ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states invited by India for their meeting in May.
India is the current chair of the SCO of eight countries.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan considers the SCO an important organization and will continue to participate in all its activities and contribute constructively to its outcome.
“With regard to participation in the upcoming SCO Council of Foreign Ministers, as I have said earlier, the matter is under consideration and as and when it is decided, we will share it with everyone,” he said at the weekly briefing.
“Now, you have asked about individual participation, we do not have final decisions at this stage. When these decisions are taken, we will share them with you. It is a bit premature for me to speculate about these meetings. ‘
If the Pakistani foreign minister attends the meeting in person, it would be the first such visit from Islamabad to India since 2011. Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited India that year. Khar is currently serving as the Minister of State for External Affairs.
In May 2014, then Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif visited India to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In December 2015, the then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan and a few days later, Modi made a brief visit to the neighboring country.
Asked about any update on the case of Indian prisoner Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been behind bars for more than seven years, Baloch said: “I have said before and I repeat again that the case of Indian terrorist No progress has been made. is in Pakistan’s custody.” Baloch also said that Pakistan wants peace and dialogue in South Asia and its foreign policy is based on building partnerships for peace, friendship and prosperity in the region and beyond.
“We seek friendly relations with all our neighbours. We have also advocated constructive engagement and result-oriented dialogue with India on all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir.
India has maintained that it desires normal neighborly relations with Pakistan, while insisting that the onus lies on Islamabad to create an environment free of terrorism and hostility for such engagement.
Relations between India and Pakistan were severely strained after India’s warplanes blew up a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.
Relations deteriorated further in August 2019 after India announced the withdrawal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special powers and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into union territories.
The SCO was founded in 2001 at a summit in Shanghai by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Over the years, it has emerged as one of the largest inter-regional international organizations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.
Baloch also said that Khar would travel to Bahrain on March 10 to participate in the annual Manama Dialogue.
She will also make an official visit to the UK to participate in the Commonwealth Day and Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers’ Meeting (CFAMM) from March 13-15 in London.
Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Afghanistan He said Markus Potzel is visiting Pakistan from March 9-10 to exchange views on the situation in Afghanistan, with a special focus on the humanitarian situation and international aid for Afghans.
Baloch said that two important talks between Pakistan and the US will take place in Islamabad next week, including the Energy Security Dialogue and the Climate and Environment Working Group meeting.
He said bilateral talks would be held with countries in East Asia including Australia, China, Japan and Malaysia in the coming days.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)