India has extended an invitation to Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that it is hosting in May, indicating a potential warming of relations between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Following a request for talks with India over all outstanding issues, including the illegally occupied region of Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended the invitation.
There were demonstrations on the streets of India just one month ago in response to Bilawal’s remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi outside of a UN Security Council meeting. India referred to the foreign minister’s remarks as “uncivilized.”.
When Reuters reached out to the two foreign ministries for comment regarding media reports that Bilawal had been invited to the SCO foreign ministers meeting in Goa, the foreign ministry spokespersons did not immediately respond.
India, Pakistan, China, Russia, and four Central Asian nations make up the SCO.
The Indian High Commission in Islamabad, according to the Indian Express newspaper, delivered the invitation.
If Pakistan agrees, Bilawal will travel to India for the first time in almost 12 years as its foreign minister.
Since their liberation from British rule in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought three wars. Two of those wars originated in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir.
India charges Pakistan with fueling the long-running uprising in Kashmir, which is primarily under its control. Pakistan rejects India’s accusation.
When India unilaterally revoked Kashmir’s autonomous status, which it had occupied illegally since 1989, tensions erupted again in late 2019. PM Shehbaz claimed that “flagrant” human rights violations there were caused by New Delhi’s actions.
Although there have been some efforts to restart negotiations through covert diplomacy, official talks between the two nations have been put on hold since then. However, the United Arab Emirates mediated the last attempt in 2021, and PM Shehbaz once more asked for assistance to help revive negotiations with India. (PhotoNews / Reuters)
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