Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Foreign Ministers meeting on May 4 and 5 in India’s city of Goa.
Much has been said about the first visit to India by a Pakistani minister in years, who will attend the meeting and whether Pakistan was snubbed about a request for a bilateral meeting. So here are four things to know about the meeting.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was formed in 2001 when Uzbekistan joined a group called the Shanghai Five. The original members, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, were joined by Pakistan and India in 2017.
India is hosting the summit because the presidency of the SCO rotated to it in 2023. Hence it is hosting the summit.
With foreign ministers from China, India and Russia present, the meeting becomes more than just a group trying to find a better way to live with each other. By representing more than 30% of the world’s GDP and 40% of the world’s population, the SCO is a way for a group of countries, all in close geographical proximity to each other, to assert themselves on the first stage.
The most recent visit to India by a high-ranking Pakistan diplomat was in 2016 when Sartaj Aziz – then the senior adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs – travelled to New Delhi.
Tensions between Pakistan and India were high at the time. The Uri attack had taken place in September and India had claimed that it had carried out surgical strikes across the border.
However, Sartaj’s appearance only led to confrontation over allegations of terrorism being sponsored by Pakistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had even said that Pakistan needed to ‘aid to fight terrorism’ after Pakistan promised $500 million for development in Afghanistan.
Sartaj Aziz was also barred from speaking to the media.
A few days before Bilawal’s trip, a rumour flew that Pakistan had requested a meeting between FM Bilawal Bhutto and India’s minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar but had been denied by India.
In response, Pakistani authorities clarified that no such meeting had ever been requested. The authorities said that Bilawal was travelling with the sole aim of attending the ministerial meeting.
Bilawal himself addressed the situation in a press conference earlier this week when he said that SCO rules did not allow for bilateral matters to be discussed at the event.
Still, two foreign ministers being in the same room has to count for something.
Bilawal and his delegation will not be the only people attending the event from Pakistan, a group of around a dozen journalists will also attend the event.
Media interactions on the international stage often make some of the biggest headlines and two particular instances will explain how loud things can get.
In 2013, then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif hosted two journalists, Hamid Mir and Barkha Dutt, for breakfast on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session. Speaking to Geo News later, Mir quoted Sharif as having said that Indian PM Manmohan Singh had complained about Pakistan as a dehati aurat or village lady.
The controversy ended when both Pakistani authorities and Mir himself clarified that the comment was not made, but enough controversy had been generated.
Then in 2022, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was asked a question about Jaisankar’s allegations of sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan on the sidelines of a ministerial-level meeting of the Security Council.
“Osama bin Laden is dead, but the butcher of Gujarat lives, and he is the prime minister (of India),” Bilawal had retorted.
Media on both sides of the border launched into a furious debate, with Bilawal innocently explaining that he had simply stated ‘historical facts’.
Whether or not something fiery is said at the SCO meeting that launches a war of headlines, some things are certain: some tough questions will be asked and when they are answered, the world will be listening.
