Pakistan is hosting the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting in October. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to attend this meeting. Apart from the Prime Minister, other leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have also been invited. Looking at the relations and circumstances so far, there is no question of PM Modi going to Islamabad. In such a situation, it will be interesting to see whether he sends any minister to represent India in this program or not.
Pakistan is going to host this meeting on 15-16 October. Let us tell you that the hosting of CHG comes to all the countries in turn. It is the second largest decision-making body after the Council of Heads of State in the Eurasian Group. PM Modi has been a regular attendee of the summit of heads of state, although this year he refused to attend in Kazakhstan. In his place, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar attended Bishkek last year.
The Indian government has not yet taken any decision on Pakistan’s invitation to PM Modi for the SCO CHG meeting. The recent terrorist attacks in Jammu may serve to create an atmosphere against any high-level ministerial visit to Pakistan.
In his message on Kargil Vijay Diwas last month, PM Modi had named Pakistan and said that it has not learnt anything from history. He had said that Pakistan is trying to remain relevant through terrorism and proxy war. The last Indian Foreign Minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj, who visited Pakistan in 2015.
Despite PM Modi’s counterpart Shahbaz Sharif’s good relations with his brother Nawaz Sharif, there is little chance of improvement in India-Pakistan relations. This is because Pakistan wants India to reverse its decision to end the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. At the same time, India says that it has no option left other than illegal occupation of PoK to discuss the Kashmir issue with Pakistan.
Let us tell you that the SCO is perhaps the only multilateral forum where India and Pakistan have managed to work together despite hostility. PM Modi had skipped the summit of heads of state in Kazakhstan. He did so because the Parliament session had already begun in early July.
It is not yet clear whether the leaders will be allowed to address the SCO event virtually. Both India and Pakistan are full members of the grouping led by Russia and China.