S Jaishankar to visit Pakistan for annual Shanghai Summit on October 15, 16

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is scheduled to travel to Pakistan to attend Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Islamabad on October 15-16. India confirmed on August 30.

That it had received an invitation from Pakistan for the upcoming SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting to be held in Islamabad. Pakistan holds the rotating chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) and in that capacity, it will be hosting the two-day in-person SCO Heads of Government meeting in October.

The Islamabad summit meeting will be preceded by a ministerial meeting and several rounds of senior officials’ meetings focused on financial, economic, socio-cultural and humanitarian cooperation among the SCO member states.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

In July last year, Iran became a permanent member of the SCO at an India-hosted virtual summit of the grouping. The SCO, as an influential economic and security bloc, has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations.

India hosted the SCO Summit last year, organised virtually. It was attended by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif through a video link.