World News | No decision yet on Pak FM Bilawal’s visit to India: Official

ISLAMABAD, March 9 (PTI) Pakistan said on Thursday that no decision has been taken on its Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s visit to India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization high-level meeting.

Bilawal and China’s Qin Gang, who are foreign ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states, were invited by India to a meeting scheduled for May.

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India is the current chairman of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan regards the SCO as an important organization and will continue to participate in all activities and contribute constructively to its outcomes.

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“Regarding participation in the upcoming meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as I said before, the matter is under consideration and once a decision is made, we will share it with you,” she told a regular weekly briefing.

“Right now, with regards to the in-person participation you’re asking about, at this stage we don’t have a final decision. When those decisions are made, we’ll share them with you. It’s too early to speculate on those meetings,” she said.

If Pakistan’s foreign minister attends the meeting in person, it will be Islamabad’s first visit to India since 2011. The then Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khal visited India that year. Carr is currently serving as foreign minister.

In May 2014, then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited India and attended the inauguration ceremony of Prime Minister Modi.

In December 2015, then Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan, and a few days later, Modi paid a brief visit to the neighboring country.

On any update on the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian prisoner held for more than seven years, Baloch said: “I said before and I reiterate again that there is no progress in the case of the Indian terrorist, he is under the custody of Pakistan.”

Baloch also said that Pakistan wants peace and dialogue in South Asia and that its foreign policy is based on partnerships of peace, friendship and prosperity in the region and beyond.

“We want friendly relations with all our neighbors. We also advocate constructive engagement and result-oriented dialogue with India on all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.

India has always insisted that it wants normal good-neighbourly relations with Pakistan, while insisting that Islamabad has a responsibility to create an environment free of terror and hostility for such engagement.

Relations between India and Pakistan were severely strained after Indian warplanes bombed the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot, Pakistan, in February 2019 in response to the Pulwama terrorist attack.

Relations between the two countries further deteriorated after India announced in August 2019 that it would withdraw special powers from Jammu and Kashmir and split the former state into a union territory.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was established in 2001 at a summit in Shanghai by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Over the years, it has become one of the largest interregional international organizations. India and Pakistan became permanent members in 2017.

Baloch also said Karl would travel to Bahrain on March 10 for the annual Manama Dialogue.

She will also be on an official visit to the UK to attend Commonwealth Days and the Conference of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers (CFAMM) in London from 13-15 March.

She added that Marcus Potzel, the UN Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, will visit Pakistan on March 9-10 to exchange views on the situation in Afghanistan, with a particular focus on the humanitarian situation and international concerns for Afghans. assistance.

Baloch said Pakistan and the United States will hold two important dialogues in Islamabad next week, including an energy security dialogue and a climate and environment working group meeting.

She added that in the coming days, there will be bilateral dialogues with East Asian countries including Australia, China, Japan and Malaysia.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)