India to invite Pakistan PM Sharif for SCO meet

The ties between India and Pakistan have not been anything to talk about off late. Following the Pulwama terror attack and Balakot air strikes, ties plunged to a new low

New Delhi, Jan 26: India will invite Pakistan Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting which will be held in May this year.

The development comes a day after India had handed out invitations to Pakistan's foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang to attend the SCO summit in Goa.

The invitations are part of a laid down procedures and there is no word on whether Bhutto or Gang will attend the meet.

In case the prime minister and foreign minister of Pakistan decide to attend the SCO meet, it would be the first such visit from Islamabad to India since 2011. The last visit by a minister from Pakistan to India was by then foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar.

Tensions soared between India and Pakistan following the Pulwama attack in which 40 soldiers lost their lives. India retaliated by carrying out an air strike in Balakot in which a Jaish-e-Mohammad facility had been destroyed.

The relations further worsened after India in August 2019 abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. The government while announcing the withdrawal of the special provision also bifurcated the erstwhile state into a Union Territory.

India is the current chair of the SCO comprising eight nations. The meeting of the SCO foreign ministers will take place in Goa later this year.

Last September India had taken over the chairmanship of the grouping. India is set to host key ministerial meetings in Goa in the first week of May. The SCO also includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Invites have been sent out all these nations.

Pakistan is also unlikely to take part in the SCO Film Festival which will be held in Mumbai this month.Neerja Sekhar, additional secretary, Information and Broadcasting had said that only one SCO member country had not sent entries as yet.

The SCO is significant for India in terms of economics and geopolitics with the Eurasian states. It is also great platform for India to adcance its Connect Central Asia Policy.