Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto to visit India next month, first visit by any Pak leader since 2014

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit to be held on May 4 and May 5 in Goa.

Bhutto Zardari will lead the Pakistani delegation to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) being held on May 4-5, 2023, in Goa, India, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch announced, according to news agency PTI.

"Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan's commitment to the SCO Charter and processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities," Baloch said.

She said the Pakistan foreign minister would be attending the meeting as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had invited him to attend the SCO moot.

This will be the first visit by a key Pakistani leader to India after former Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2014. In 2011, then Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar had visited India. 

India has formally sent invitations to all members of the SCO including Pakistan and China.

The announcement of Bhutto's visit comes months after his remarks over PM Modi. Responding to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s ‘Osama killed in Pakistan’ remark at the UN, Bilawal attacked PM Modi over the 2002 Gujarat riots.

“(I want to tell India) that Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the Prime Minister of India. He (PM Modi) was banned from entering this country until he became the prime minister. This is the prime minister of the RSS and the foreign minister of the RSS. What is the RSS? The RSS takes inspiration from Hitler’s SS,” Zardari said.

The BJP had termed Zardari's personal comments against PM Narendra Modi as "highly shameful and derogatory" and staged nationwide protests to vent its spleen against the Pakistani minister.

Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov are also likely to participate in the meeting. India took over the chairmanship of the nine-member mega grouping in September last year and will be holding key ministerial meetings and the summit this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in September 2022, was the first in-person summit since June 2019 meeting of the SCO leaders in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Notably, this year's SCO foreign ministers meeting comes in the wake-up of escalating Russia-Ukraine war and India's G20 Presidency.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Over the years, it has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations.

India and Pakistan became permanent members of the Beijing-based SCO in 2017.

(With agencies inputs)

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