'Not Appropriate To Focus on One Country, All Members Were Invited': MEA on Bilawal Bhutto’s India Visit

As Pakistan’s External Affairs Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is set to visit India next month for the SCO summit, the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that it was “not appropriate” to focus on a particular country as invitations were sent to all member states.

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that it would not be really appropriate to look at participation by any one particular country and that similar invites were received by all SCO members, according to Hindustan Times.

Having a bilateral meeting between the two neighbors, Bagchi said, was a “premature” thought. “Regarding the request for bilateral meetings, I think it is premature. Let’s see the full participation,” he said.

Bachi further said that External Affairs Minister S Jaishakar does try to hold as many one-on-one meetings with member states as possible on the sidelines of such summits.

Also Read | ‘Will Not Raise Bilateral Issues With India During SCO Meet’: Pak FM Bhutto

This comes as Bilwal, in a first visit of the Pakistani Foreign Minister to India in over a decade, is set to visit the country for the SCO Foreign Minister’s meeting in Goa on May 4-5.

This will be the first visit of the Pakistani Foreign Minister to India in over a decade. Earlier in 2011, then Pakistan Foreign Minister and now junior Foreign Minister in Pakistan Hina Rabbani Khar had visited New Delhi.

India and Pakistan have seen minimal diplomatic engagement as the ties between the two neighbouring nations got sour in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019.

The last high-level visit from the Pakistani delegation was in December 2016, when the then-Pakistan Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz visited India to attend the Heart of Asia Conference in Amritsar.

Since then, there have been no official visits by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister to India.

Announcing Bilawal’s visit, Pakistan Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the foreign minister is attending the SCO meet on the invitation of the Current Chair of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Dr S Jaishankar.

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