Pakistan has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Islamabad. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit will be held in Islamabad in October. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to attend the meeting. Pakistan's deplomat, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said on Thursday that the summit will be held on October 15 and 16.
For this, invitations have been sent to the heads of each participating country.Although there is no word from Delhi yet on the issue, diplomatic analysts believe that Pakistan is likely to turn down the invitation.
Pakistan's deplomat, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said the SCO member states will meet on October 15-16. The leaders of each country have been invited to the summit. Baloch also claimed that an invitation has also been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the neighboring country. "Several countries have already accepted the invitation," the Foreign Office spokesperson said. Which countries have confirmed it will be announced later.
There has been no word from New Delhi on whether Prime Minister Modi or any Indian delegation will attend the meeting in Islamabad in October. There has been no response from Delhi so far on whether an invitation has come from Islamabad or not. However, the place where the diplomatic relations between the two countries stand is not in any part of the sweet. India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of sponsoring terrorism. Indian diplomats have been vocal about this in various international forums.
The SCO meeting was held virtually in July last year. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, Modi had also raised the issue of terrorism. From the Kashmir problem to the infiltration of militants from Pakistan, there is instability in diplomatic relations between the two countries. Even though bilateral diplomatic talks are far away, bilateral cricket is also closed between the two countries. In such a situation, diplomatic analysts see Modi's invitation to the meeting of the top leaders of the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a 'formality' of Islamabad. According to them, Prime Minister Modi is more likely to ignore the invitation of Pakistan. Or a representative from the ministry may be sent to the meeting. Because, as per tradition, the presence of any country's leader in the SCO meeting is not mandatory.
There are also indications of any other delegation from Delhi going to the SCO meeting in Modi's absence. For instance, Modi did not attend the SCO meeting in Kazakhstan on July 3-4 this year. He was replaced by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif did not visit Goa for the Shanghai Cooperation (CO) summit last year. He sent the then Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
