ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will leave for India today (Thursday) to lead Pakistan’s delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) being held on 4-5 May 2023 in Goa.

The foreign minister is attending the SCO CFM meeting at the invitation of the current Chair of SCO CFM, Dr S Jaishankar, Minister for External Affairs of the Republic of India.

The foreign minister will be accompanied by Foreign Secretary Dr Asad Majeed Khan and Additional Secretary (Asia Pacific) Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, who is the spokesperson for the Foreign Office.

“Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO Charter and processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” Foreign Office said in a statement.

It added that Foreign Minister Bilawal had also attended the last meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers held in July last year in Tashkent.

However, sources said there was no bilateral meeting scheduled between Foreign Minister Bilawal and his Indian counterpart Jaishankar.

The foreign minister will also be holding sideline meetings with foreign ministers from other SCO states, including with China, Russia, and others from the Central Asian States.

Last week, Foreign Office spokesperson Baloch dismissed the criticism at Bilawal’s decision to attend the SCO moot in Goa despite negative gestures from the Indian authorities.

“In our announcement of the visit of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to Goa, we made it very clear that this visit is taking place in the context of a mandatory meeting of the SCO. Any other noise that accompanies the visit of the Foreign Minister must be ignored, because that’s just noise and has no bearing on the SCO and its proceedings,” she said.

She said “this is not a bilateral visit of the foreign minister of Pakistan to India. This visit is taking place because Pakistan is an active member of SCO and the foreign minister has to represent Pakistan in the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting,” she stated in response to some Kashmiri leaders who have also opposed the visit at this time.

“We have every confidence that our Kashmiri brothers and sisters would understand the reason why this visit is taking place. Any activities of [the] foreign minister during his visit to Goa will be in the context of SCO,” she further explained.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023