Pakistan’s foreign minister to make most senior-level trip to India in seven years

Islamabad: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will visit India next month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s meeting, his ministry’s official spokesperson confirmed on Thursday, making it the most senior-level visit from Pakistan to the country in seven years.

The development comes as a surprise since Pakistan decided to downgrade diplomatic relations with India after the administration in New Delhi revoked the special constitutional status of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir in August 2019 to integrate it with the rest of the Indian union.

Pakistan also revisited its trade relations with its eastern neighbor and voiced concern that Indian officials were violating international law by trying to change the demography of Muslim-majority Kashmir under its administration.

This is the first time that a senior foreign office representative from Pakistan will visit India since 2016, the last visit being undertaken by Sartaj Aziz, then adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs, who attended the Heart of Asia conference in Amritsar.

Earlier this year, Pakistan’s foreign office confirmed India’s invitation to its foreign minister to attend the SCO meeting, though it said it was not in a rush to send an



acceptance.

“Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will be leading the Pakistan delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Foreign Ministers being held on May 4-5, 2023 in Goa, India,” said the foreign office spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch.

“The Foreign Minister is attending the SCO CFM meeting at the invitation of the current Chair of SCO CFM, Dr. S. Jaishankar, minister for external affairs of the Republic of India.”

She added that Pakistan’s participation in the meeting reflected its commitment to the SCO charter and processes and the importance that the country accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities.

“Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had also attended the last meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in July last year in Tashkent,” she continued.

Pakistan and India continue to have rocky relations, though the Pakistani foreign minister’s upcoming visit to the neighboring country could prove to be a step toward normalization.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also offered talks to India recently, which prompted Indian officials to say that they wanted normal relations with Pakistan in a “conducive atmosphere.”