Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday, marking the first visit of its kind in nearly a decade. He attended a government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) under strict security measures in the capital. Jaishankar was one of almost a dozen leaders participating in the event, which will conclude with the main session on Wednesday. This visit is significant, as it has been nearly ten years since an Indian foreign minister last visited Pakistan, reflecting the tense relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Jaishankar also addressed the diplomats with a greeting in Hindi (Namaskar).
During the meeting, the politician congratulated Pakistan on its SCO Heads of Government Council chairmanship and expressed New Delhi’s full support for its successful chairmanship.
The SCO was founded on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai. Since its founding, the organization has included Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and in 2017, despite long-standing disagreements, Pakistan and India joined simultaneously. Iran became the ninth member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on 4 July 2023, despite having been an SCO observer since 2005. The late entry is explained by the inability to join international organizations due to UN sanctions until 2016.
