Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 25: India has invited Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)’s meeting that is likely to be held in the coming months.
Pakistan has not yet accepted India’s invitation.
The invitations were sent through the Indian High Commission in Islamabad at a time when bilateral relations between the neighbouring countries are at an all-time low.
India took over the chairmanship of the nine-member group last September and is set to host major ministerial meetings and a summit in Goa in the first week of May.
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If Bhutto accepts the invitation, it will be his first visit in more than a decade. Hina Rabbani Khar was the last Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in 2011.
Relations between the two countries have been strained for several years due to unresolved issues of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan and Islamabad seeking the restoration of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. In addition, Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks at the United Nations last month about Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not help improve relations between the nations.
SCO also includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Invitations were also sent to the foreign ministers of China and Russia along with the other Central Asian countries.
Notably, Iran is the newest member of the organisation and will attend the group’s meeting as a full member for the first time, under India’s presidency.
