India Confirms Receiving Invitation From Pakistan For PM Modi To Attend SCO

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed on Friday that Pakistan has extended an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting scheduled for October. However, the ministry provided no further information on whether PM Modi would attend the event in Pakistan.

"We have received an invitation from Pakistan for the SCO summit. We don't have an update on that. We will let you know the situation later," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated. The Foreign Office of Pakistan also confirmed on Thursday that it had sent an invitation to PM Modi.

The SCO summit in Pakistan will be preceded by a ministerial meeting and several rounds of discussions among senior officials, focusing on financial, economic, socio-cultural, and humanitarian cooperation among member states. During a weekly press briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch announced that invitations had been sent to heads of state, including PM Modi. She noted that some countries had already confirmed their participation, but details would be revealed later.

When asked about India-Pakistan relations, Baloch emphasized that Pakistan does not have direct bilateral trade with India. Tensions between the two nations remain high due to longstanding issues such as the Kashmir conflict and cross-border terrorism originating from Pakistan. India has consistently expressed a desire for normal relations with Pakistan but maintains that Islamabad must first create an environment free of terror and hostility. Relations between the two countries further deteriorated after India's abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, which led Pakistan to downgrade diplomatic ties.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar made a strong statement on Friday, declaring that the era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over, and emphasizing that "actions have consequences." Speaking at a book launch in New Delhi, Jaishankar stated, "The era of uninterrupted dialogue with Pakistan is over. Actions have consequences. So far as J&K is concerned, Article 370 is done. So, the issue is what kind of relationship we can contemplate with Pakistan... What I do want to say is that we are not passive, and whether events take a positive or a negative direction, either way, we will react."

Given the current strained ties, it remains uncertain whether PM Modi will accept the invitation to attend the SCO summit in Islamabad. Earlier, PM Modi skipped the SCO Summit in Kazakhstan on July 3-4, opting instead to travel to Russia. The Indian delegation at that meeting was led by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and included the participation of Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese President Xi Jinping.