India Invites Foreign Ministers of China, Pakistan For SCO Meet

For the first time in 12 years, India has invited Pakistan’s foreign minister for the SCO meet. India has also invited foreign ministers of other countries.

India will host important ministerial gatherings and the summit this year while serving as the mass grouping’s chairman, which it assumed in September of last year.

All SCO members, including Pakistan and China, have received official invitations from India to the upcoming conference of foreign ministers, which will take place in Goa from May 4–5.

The invitation also includes Bilawal Bhutto of Pakistan and Qin Gang, the next foreign minister of China.

India will host important ministerial gatherings and the summit this year while serving as the group’s chairman, which it assumed in September of last year.

According to sources, the Pakistani government has not yet confirmed whether or not Foreign Minister Bilawal will attend the conference.

At the SCO Film Festival, which will take place in Mumbai later this month, Pakistan has not taken part. 

All nations have submitted films, however Pakistan is the only one that didn’t send any for the group’s third film festival.

In a news conference on Monday, Neerja Shekar, Additional Secretary, I&B, stated that only one SCO member country’s entries had not been received or had no response.

Regarding issues of cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, relations between the two nations have been tense for a long time, notwithstanding Islamabad’s demands for the reinstatement of Article 370 for the formerly Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Furthermore, any improvement in relations between the two nations has been overshadowed by FM Bilawal’s comments on PM Modi made at the United Nations (UN) last month.

The 20-year-old group is made up of four central Asian nations—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—as well as Russia, India, China, and Pakistan.

Iran is the most recent nation to join, and under the Indian Presidency, it will attend meetings of the organization for the first time as an official member.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s most recent gathering took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

In order to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The SCO Council of Heads of State’s 22nd Meeting is the organization’s first physical summit since 2019.

India is interested in developing better supply chains because it wants to become a manufacturing center, which necessitates cooperation with the main economies in the area.

In order to allow better supply chains through improved connectivity, Prime Minister Modi pushed for transit rights during the summit. Previously, India had difficulty reaching Central Asian markets without passage rights across Pakistan’s territory.

The geopolitics and economics of the SCO with the Eurasian states are important to India.

The SCO might provide a venue for India to pursue its Connect Central Asia policy.

The vast terrain that the SCO member states inhabit is next to India’s extended region, where India has both economic and security interests.

Afghan stability depends on the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group. India’s membership in the SCO offers a crucial counterbalance to some of the other organizations it is a part of. 

The SCO is the only international forum that allows India to conduct business with Pakistan and Afghanistan in close proximity.