PM Modi: Pakistan has invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting on October 15-16 in Islamabad. The invitation is according to the protocol of SCO, and presently, Pakistan is holding the rotating chair of the grouping.
PM Modi’s Attendance at SCO Meeting Unlikely
But the possibility is less likely for the personal presence of PM Modi in the meeting as the diplomatic tension between India and Pakistan has not been resolved. Question arises, if he will send some ministers to represent India in the event. PM Modi has been consistently participating in the SCO heads of state summits earlier, though he failed to join this year’s summit held in Kazakhstan because of parliamentary clash.
The CHG is one of the principal decision-making mechanisms in the SCO, and India has been represented at the highest level by the foreign minister, including when Jaishankar joined the session in Bishkek last year.
India’s Decision on Pakistan’s SCO Invitation
An official response to the invitation by Pakistan is still pending from the Indian government. The decision will be driven by recent geopolitical issues, which range from recent terror attacks in Jammu to disputes between the two over Kashmir. Those are just a few of the intractable conflicts between the two countries that burden their bilateral relations, even as both work for regional cooperation within the SCO framework.
It is against this backdrop of enlarged complexities in Indo-Pakistani relations and changing diplomatic scenarios within the SCO that India’s participation in the CHG meeting remains a question.