As the chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), India has invited Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Bilawal Bhutto, and the Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to attend foreign ministers’ and chief justices’ meeting which is scheduled to take place in Goa in May.
Pakistan, however, is yet to respond to the invite sent by India through its High Commission in Islamabad. It is notable that India took over the rotating presidency of the eight-member grouping in September last year. India has sent formal invitations to all the SCO member countries including Pakistan and China.
“In keeping with its ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’, India desires normal neighborly relations with Pakistan. India has consistently argued that any disputes should be resolved bilaterally, amicably, and in an atmosphere free of terror and violence. The onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive environment. India has made it clear that it will not make compromises on matters involving national security and that it will act firmly and decisively to thwart any attempts to compromise its security and territorial integrity,” The Indian Express quoted a top official as saying.
This comes days after the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif in an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV said that Pakistan has learned its lesson after three wars with India and stressed that now it wants peace with its neighbor.
“We have had three wars with India, and they have only brought more misery, poverty, and unemployment to the people. We have learned our lesson, and we want to live in peace with India, provided we are able to resolve our genuine problems,” Sharif said in the interview.
Earlier in December 2022, Bilawal Bhutto made derogatory remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In New York, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called PM Narendra Modi the‘ butcher of Gujarat’. He also accused India of carrying out terror attacks in Pakistan and denied that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism. He made the comments responding to remarks of Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar at the UNSC, where he had pointed out that Osama Bin Laden was found hiding in Pakistan.
Notably, Pakistan has decided not to participate in the SCO Film Festival, which will be held in Mumbai from January 27 to 30. The third such film festival hosted by the group has received submissions from all nations with the exception of Pakistan.
It is pertinent to note that this is the first time in over a decade that India has extended such an invitation. In 2011, Hina Rabbani Khar was the last Pakistani foreign minister to visit India.
Ever since the Narendra Modi government abrogated Article 370 in Jammu Kashmir, the already strained Indo-Pak bilateral ties have been affected. The Modi government also took a strict stand against Pakistan’s state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.
The SCO currently has eight member countries (China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), four observer states interested in acceding to full membership (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia), and six “Dialogue Partners” (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Turkey).
Notably, the Shanghai Five, which was formed in 1996, became the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2001 with the addition of Uzbekistan. The SCO expanded to become one of the largest multilateral organizations in the world, representing more than 30% of the world’s GDP and 40% of the world’s population, with the addition of India and Pakistan in 2017 and the decision to admit Tehran as a full member in 2021.
