India’s Foreign Minister, S. Jaishankar, will attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Pakistan this month, marking the first visit by a senior Indian official to Pakistan in nearly a decade, according to an announcement from his ministry.
This trip follows a visit last year by Pakistan’s then-Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who attended an SCO meeting in India—becoming the first high-ranking Pakistani politician to do so since 2011.
Relations between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed neighbors, have been strained for decades, with the countries fighting three wars since gaining independence in 1947, two of which were over Kashmir.
The SCO, formed to address security and economic issues in Central Asia, was established by China, Russia, and four Central Asian nations in 2001 as a counterbalance to Western alliances like NATO. India and Pakistan joined the organization in 2017.
With India having chaired the SCO in 2023, Pakistan will host this year’s summit from October 15 to 16. India’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, confirmed on Friday that Mr. Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation to Pakistan.
The last visit by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan was in 2015, when Sushma Swaraj attended a security conference in Islamabad, holding rare discussions with Pakistani officials. Days later, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise visit to Lahore to meet then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Tensions between India and Pakistan intensified in 2019, following Indian airstrikes on Pakistani territory in response to a militant attack on Indian troops in Indian-administered Kashmir. Both nations claim the Kashmir region in full but control only parts of it, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting separatist insurgents—a claim Pakistan denies.
Mr. Bhutto-Zardari’s visit to India last year hinted at the possibility of improving relations. However, he emphasized that his visit was strictly focused on the SCO meeting and refrained from direct talks with Mr. Jaishankar. In an interview with the BBC at the time, he stated that the responsibility to resume peace talks lay with India.
