New Delhi. India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar will visit Pakistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. SACO summit is to be organized in Islamabad on 15th and 16th October this month. S. Jaishankar will represent the Indian delegation in it. Confirming this, an update related to Jaishankar’s visit has been given by the Ministry of External Affairs. Earlier, an invitation was sent by Pakistan to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the SCO summit. A total of 9 countries including India and Pakistan are included in SCO.
#WATCH MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, “EAM Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan for the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on 15th and 16th October…” pic.twitter.com/HP7cSzH6AI
— ANI (@ANI) October 4, 2024
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar will meet his Sri Lankan counterpart during this period. After this, Jaishankar will meet the Sri Lankan President and congratulate him on behalf of PM Modi. The year 2023 SCO summit was hosted by India in virtual mode. At that time, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was connected to this meeting through online medium.
What is Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a permanent intergovernmental international organization. The SCO was established in Shanghai on June 15, 2001. Earlier, a total of 6 countries including China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were its members. Later in 2017, it was expanded to include India and Pakistan also. A year ago, in 2023, Iran was also made its member. In this way, a total of 9 countries are current members of SCO. The purpose of this organization is to promote cooperation and peace among member states and to develop a new democratic, fair and rational international relations. SCO includes Mongolia, Belarus and Afghanistan as 3 observer countries and Sri Lanka, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Cambodia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Qatar and Bahrain, a total of 14 countries as dialogue partners.