New Delhi: Pakistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will lead an official delegation to India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Foreign Ministers (SCO-CFM) meet scheduled to take place in Goa from 4-5 May, the country’s Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch announced Thursday.
FM @BBhuttoZardari will lead 🇵🇰delegation to SCO-CFM meeting being held on 4-5 May 2023 in Goa,India. FM’s participation in Meeting reflects 🇵🇰’s continued commitment to SCO Charter & processes & the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities.
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) April 20, 2023
“(Zardari’s) participation in (the) Meeting reflects (Pakistan)’s continued commitment to SCO Charter & processes & the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” Baloch said on the ministry’s Twitter account.
Baloch’s announcement comes nearly three months after India invited Pakistan through its High Commission in Islamabad to visit Goa for the meet in the first week of May.
“In keeping with its ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’, India desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan. India’s consistent position is that issues, if any, between India and Pakistan should be resolved bilaterally and peacefully, in an atmosphere free of terror and violence. The onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive environment. It has been made clear that India will not compromise on issues relating to national security and will take firm and decisive steps to deal with all attempts to undermine India’s security and territorial integrity,” The Indian Express cited an unnamed official at the time.
A regional security, political and economic block focused on Eurasia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) features China and Russia as prominent members, alongside India, Pakistan and several Central Asian nations.
The impending visit by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his delegation would mark the first time a Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs visited India since Hina Rabbani Khar in 2011.
Khar currently serves as the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in the Shehbaz Sharif government and has been a supporter of improving relations with India. But since taking office in 2022, she has said she does not “see a partner” for Pakistan in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The last time an Indian Minister of External Affairs visited Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj in December 2015, prior to the terrorist attacks in Uri in 2016 and Pulwama in 2019 — that led to a deterioration in relations between the two nations.
More recently in December 2022, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was criticised in India for his remarks on Narendra Modi, referring to the Prime Minister as the “butcher of Gujarat” in light of the 2002 riots that took place during Modi’s term as then chief minister.
Last month, the Pakistan foreign minister hit headlines again for a gaffe during a press conference in New York on the outcome of the Women in Islam Conference and Commemoration of the First Islamophobia Day. Zardari labelled India as a “friend” of Pakistan before stuttering and changing the term to “neighbouring country”.
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