Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to attend SCO Foreign Ministers’ meet in India

On April 20, Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will visit India this May for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Goa, officials said.

Bhutto-Zardari will lead the Pakistani delegation to the SCO Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting scheduled for May 4-5 in Goa, according to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.

During a weekly presser on April 20, Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch stated that Bhutto-Zardari is attending the SCO-CFM meeting in India.

“Our participation at the meeting reflects Pakistan’s continued commitment to the SCO charter and process and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” the spokesperson said.

Bilawal will be the first foreign minister to visit India after a gap of nearly 12 years, reported Business Recorder. In 2011, then Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar had visited India.

India has formally sent invitations to all members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), including Pakistan and China, for the upcoming Foreign Ministers’ meeting.

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 9-member mega grouping in September last year and will be holding key ministerial meetings and the summit this year.

The 20-year-old organisation has Russia, India, China, Pakistan, and four central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as its members.

Iran is the latest country to become a member and, under Indian Presidency, will attend the grouping’s meeting for the first time as a full-fledged member.

The last meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation 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.