UPDATE - Shanghai Cooperation Organization's foreign ministers' meeting set to begin in India

UPDATES WITH PAKISTAN'S FORMER TOP DIPLOMAT'S REMARKS, CHANGES DECK

By Anadolu Staff

ANKARA (AA) - Top diplomats begin to arrive in India as the country's western city of Goa is hosting a two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday.

India is the current chair of the eight-nation organization, and the country will also host the SCO leaders' summit later this year.

The ministerial meeting will focus on preparations for the leaders' summit in July, and exchange views on pressing "regional and international issues."

There will also be discussions on the process of admitting Iran and Belarus to the SCO as members.

The group currently has eight members: India, Russia, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, along with four observer states and six dialogue partners, including Türkiye.

Last year, the SCO heads of state summit was held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, also attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

While the Chinese and Russian foreign ministers confirmed their arrival, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, just before he left for Goa, said his "decision to attend this meeting illustrates Pakistan’s strong commitment to the charter of SCO."

"During my visit, which is focused exclusively on the SCO, I look forward to constructive discussions with my counterparts from friendly countries," he said on Twitter.

This is the first visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to India since 2011, when then-top diplomat Hina Rabbani Khar, now Bilawal's deputy, visited the neighboring country.

"Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO Charter and processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities," said Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.

- Predecessor backs Bilawal's trip

Bilawal's trip has attracted criticism from the main opposition party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which said the visit is meant to please Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However, Bilawal's predecessor and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi backed the visit, hoping that it would not be a "missed opportunity."

In an interview with the Times of India published on Thursday, Qureshi said his party and he personally desires peace with India.

"No, we are not opposing the visit. We understand that this is a multilateral obligation. As a former foreign minister, who has been to such conclaves, this is an important visit. And by all means (he) should go ahead,” Qureshi was quoted in the daily as saying.

Rejecting any military solution to a slew of disputes between the two nuclear rivals, mainly over Jammu and Kashmir, he called for the resumption of long-stalled peace initiatives between the two sides.

“How can we have good neighborly relations and peace unless we have a dialogue? We need to recognize that we do have outstanding issues. We can’t wish them away. We have to address them,” he said, emphasizing that the most civilized way to do so was through dialogue.

Relations between the two arch-rivals plummeted to a new low after August 2019, when India scrapped the longstanding special status of Jammu and Kashmir, a disputed region, resulting in Islamabad downgrading its diplomatic ties with New Delhi.

*Islamuddin Sajid and Aamir Latif in Pakistan also contributed to this story