India Invites Pakistan's Defence Minister To SCO Meeting In Delhi

In a significant move, India has extended an invitation to Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting next month in New Delhi.

The Indian government extended a formal invitation to the Pakistan Foreign Office.

While the SCO Defence Ministers will meet in April, the bloc's Foreign Ministers will meet in May in Goa.

India, as SCO president, will host a series of events in which member states such as Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran and Central Asian States will take an active role in discussing regional concerns, security, growth and relationships.

Earlier, India extended a similar invitation to Pakistan Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, as well as a separate invitation to Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, to attend the meeting of Foreign Ministers and SCO Chief Justices.

However, Bandial did not attend the meeting, and instead, Justice Muneeb Akhtar recently attended via video link.

A decision on Bilawal's visit is also pending, which many expect will be facilitated by video link participation in the meeting.

Diplomatic sources confirmed that the Pakistani government has not yet made a decision on India's invitations, but that one will be made at a later date.

“We anticipate that India will extend an invitation to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to attend the SCO Summit in the coming days. However, it is unclear whether Pakistan will participate in those high-profile meetings,” said a source familiar with the situation.

It is also worth noting that the SCO Summit is an important forum and refusing Indian invitations for Pakistan's Foreign Minister and Defence Minister would be a difficult decision to make.

Both ministers are likely to respond positively to the invitations by attending the meetings via video link and would prefer to avoid travelling to India for the same.

Both India and Pakistan were admitted as full members of the SCO after promising not to undermine the organisation due to bilateral disputes.

Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained since February 2021, following India's Balakot airstrike and Pakistan's aggressive response, which included downing an Indian Air Force (IAF) jet and capturing Wing Commander Abhinandan, who was later released and handed over to India as a “goodwill gesture” by Pakistan.