India Foreign Minister to visit Pakistan for first time since 2015

October 08, 2024 (MLN): India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will attend a China-led summit in Pakistan in place of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government said late Friday as reported by Bloomberg.

It’ll be the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian foreign minister since 2015. Jaishankar will lead the delegation at a state-level meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation starting on October 15, said Randhir Jaiswal, foreign ministry spokesperson.

It’s not clear whether Jaishankar will hold a bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart to discuss ties. “As and when the visit develops, we will inform,” Jaiswal told reporters.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been hostile since each gained independence from British rule in 1947 and Muslim-majority Pakistan was created.

Their tensions center on the border region of Kashmir, an area in the Himalayas claimed in full — and ruled in part — by both. They’ve fought two of their three wars over control of the region.

The last Indian foreign minister to travel to Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj for a Heart of Asia Conference in December 2015. Within weeks, Modi followed with a surprise stopover in Lahore.

The China-led SCO is a Eurasian grouping of countries that includes Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Separately, India criticized Pakistan for welcoming Muslim cleric Zakir Naik, who’s wanted in India on allegations of money laundering and inciting extremism. Naik posted a video of himself on Thursday being welcomed by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad.

“We are not surprised that a fugitive from Indian justice has received a welcome in Pakistan,” Jaiswal told reporters. “It is disappointing and condemnable, but not surprising.”

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