NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD – External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation at the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of Governments (CHG) meeting, scheduled be held in Islamabad on October 15-16, the External Affairs Ministry (MEA) announced Friday.
“The External Affairs Minister will lead our delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO Summit which will be held in Islamabad,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during a weekly media briefing in New Delhi.
The spokesperson made it clear that, at this point, there are no details available on any bilateral engagements that EAM Jaishankar may have during his Pakistan visit. As part of the formal process, Pakistan had extended an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the meeting.
Jaishankar’s participation in the meeting comes as no surprise as the SCO meeting does not require heads of states to participate and Indian ministerial delegations have been attending them in the past.
“Extending an invitation to PM Modi and all other member states is a compulsive protocol any host country follows. Pakistan has done the same. I do not see this as a political stunt. However, I do not see PM Modi landing in Islamabad,” political analyst Kamran Yousaf had told IANS in August, this year.
Last year, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had visited India for the SCO Foreign Minister’s meeting. -IANS