S Jaishankar to attend SCO summit in Pakistan on October 15-16; first foreign minister to visit the country in 10 years

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit which will be held in Islamabad on October 15 and 16, a government spokesperson said on Friday. The visit will mark the first high-level visit from India to Pakistan in about ten years.

“EAM Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan for the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on 15th and 16th October,” MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a press conference on Friday.

Pakistan had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the SCO Summit.

This will be first visit by Indian External Affairs Minister to Pakistan since 2015. Former external affairs minister late Sushma Swaraj visited Islamabad in 2015 to attend a security conference on Afghanistan.

SCO is a multilateral body that includes Russia and China as members, with Pakistan hosting this year’s summit.

Jaishankar’s Pakistan visit comes  a month after he called out the neighbouring country over cross-border terrorism at the United Nations General Assembly. “Many countries get left behind due to circumstances beyond their control, but some make conscious choices with disastrous consequences. A premier example is our neighbour, Pakistan,” the minister said on September 28.

“We heard some bizarre assertions from it at this very forum yesterday. So let me make India’s position perfectly clear. Pakistan’s cross border terrorism policy will never succeed, and it can have no expectation of impunity. On the contrary, actions will certainly have consequences.” Jaishankar said referring to Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s address at the UNGA a day before.