Islamabad, April 21: Pakistan has confirmed that its foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto will attend the Shanghai Corporation Organization (SCO) meeting slated to be held in Delhi in May.
This visit of Bilawal Bhutto is expected to break the ice between India and Pakistan.
“Bilawal Bhutto will lead the Pakistani delegation to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers being held on May 4 and 5 in Goa,” Pakistan foreign office spokesman Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch announced during the weekly media briefing.
This confirmation has ended weeks of speculation and apprehension whether he would attend the conference in person amid major differences between the two neighbours.
“Our foreign minister would attend the conference as the invitation has come from Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar,” Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch added.
She further said that Pakistan’s participation in the conference reflects our commitment to the SCO Charter and the processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities.
Bilawal Bhutto’s visit is the highest-level visit to India by any Pakistani leader in recent years and a possible opportunity to break ice between the two countries.
It may be noted that the ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-E-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot in February 2019 in response to Pulwama terror attack.
The relations further diluted after India abrogated Article 370 that had given Special Status to Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
EOM
