SCO summit in Pakistan tomorrow: Will Jaishankar dine with PM Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad?

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will land in Pakistan on Tuesday, October 15, to attend a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). This will be the first high-level visit of an Indian Foreign Minister from India in about nine years amid continuing strain in ties between the two neighbours.

Shortly after Jaishankar arrives in Islamabad, he is likely to attend a banquet reception hosted by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to welcome the delegates from the SCO member nations, people familiar with the matter were quoted in a PTI report. Jaishankar is likely to be part of the welcome dinner being hosted by Sharif for the SCO delegates, according to another report in Times of India.

Both sides have already ruled out any bilateral talks between Jaishankar and his Pakistan counterpart, Ishaq Dar, on the sidelines of the SCO heads of government summit.

In August, Pakistan invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the SCO Summit. This will be the first visit by the 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.

Jaishankar will stay in Pakistan for less than 24 hours. Pakistan is hosting the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting on October 15 and 16.

Jaishankar’s visit to Pakistan assumes significance as it is seen as a significant decision on New Delhi’s part. In his recent address at an event, Jaishankar said India would certainly like to have good relations with Pakistan like any neighbour. But that, the Minister said, cannot happen by overlooking cross-border terrorism and indulging in wishful thinking.

Display of India’s commitment to the SCO

The decision to send the senior minister is seen as a display of India’s commitment to the SCO.

The ties between India and Pakistan came under severe strain after India’s warplanes pounded a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot in Pakistan in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terror attack.

The relations between the two countries further deteriorated after India announced the withdrawal of special powers of Jammu and Kashmir and the bifurcation of the state into two union territories on August 5, 2019.

Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with India after New Delhi abrogated Article 370.

India has been maintaining that it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan while insisting that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such engagement.

Pakistan’s then foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, visited India in May 2023 to attend an in-person meeting of the foreign ministers of SCO nations in Goa. It was the first visit of a Pakistani foreign minister to India in almost 12 years.