Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited by Pakistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation heads of government meeting being organised in Islamabad in October this year.
Pakistan's Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that invitations have been sent to the heads of countries to participate in the meeting which will take place on October 15-16.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited by Pakistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation heads of government meeting being organised in Islamabad in October this year.
Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch confirmed the development on Thursday at a weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that invitations have been sent to the heads of countries to participate in the meeting which will take place on October 15-16, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“An invitation has also been sent to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi,” the report quoted Mumtaz Baloch as saying.
She said some countries had already confirmed participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) heads of government meeting, adding that list of the countries participating will be out in due course.
If PM Modi accepts the invite, it will be his first visit to Pakistan since 2015, when he made a surprise visit to the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Lahore on December 25, 2015, for a meeting with his then Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in a surprise visit to this country - marking the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian premier in more than 10 years.
PM Modi was received by Sharif with a warm hug at the tarmac of Allama Iqbal International Airport after his unexpected stopover on his way back home after a day-long trip today to Afghanistan where he went after concluding a two-day visit to Russia.
The SCO Summit will be preceded by a ministerial meeting and several rounds of senior officials’ meetings focusing on financial, economic, socio-cultural, and humanitarian cooperation among the SCO member states.
The SCO, comprising India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is an influential economic and security bloc that has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations.
When asked about ties with India, the spokesperson said, “Pakistan does not have direct bilateral trade with India.”
Pakistan trimmed its ties with India after the Indian Parliament suspended Article 370 on August 5, 2019, a decision that Islamabad believed undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours.