Islamabad: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar arrived at Rawalpindi’s Nur Khan Air Base on Tuesday, October 15, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, marking the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in nine years.
His special flight landed at the air base at 3.30 pm. The Indian minister is scheduled to be in Pakistan for 24 hours.
He is scheduled to attend a dinner for all participants of the SCO meeting hosted by the Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The main meeting of the 23rd meeting of the SCO Council of heads of government will take place on Wednesday, October 16, followed by the signing of documents.
Ahead of the visit, both Indian and Pakistani ministers firmly denied any bilateral component to Jaishankar’s time in Islamabad. However, there will inevitably be some exchange of courtesies during the dinner and arrival ceremony.
At Wednesday’s SCO meeting, both Pakistan and India are expected to raise their respective concerns over terrorism, though without direct accusations, as the SCO typically discourages the discussion of bilateral disputes.
A screen at the SCO meeting venue displays visuals of Jaishankar landing in Pakistan today, October 15. Photo: Devirupa Mitra.
Relations between the two countries are in deep freeze right now, especially after the India’s August 2019 constitutional amendment which changed the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir. An outraged Pakistan had downgraded diplomatic ties and snapped trade links.
However, relations had already been deteriorating prior to that. The last visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan was in December 2015, when she attended the Heart of Asia meeting. Three weeks later, four terrorists infiltrated India’s Pathankot air force base, a significant event that further deepened the decline in relations.
Besides Jaishankar, the leaders attending the SCO summit from member states include Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Belarus Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, Kazakhstan Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, Tajik Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, Kyrgyzstan’s Chairman of Ministers Cabinet Akylbek Zhaparov and Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref.
