External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar announced on Saturday that he will not engage in discussions with Pakistan during his forthcoming visit to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave.

“It (visit) will be for a multilateral event. I’m not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I’m going there to be a good member of the SCO,” he said at the sidelines of an event in the national capital.

“But, you know, since I’m a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself accordingly,” he added.

“At the moment SAARC is not moving forward, we haven’t had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason – there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross-border terrorism at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more… Terrorism is something which is unacceptable and despite a global view of it if one of our neighbours continues to do it – there cannot be business as usual in SAARC. That’s the reason why the SAARC meeting has not happened in recent years – but it doesn’t mean that the regional activities have stopped. In fact, in the last 5-6 years, we have seen far more regional integration in the Indian subcontinent,” he added.

On Friday, India announced that Jaishankar will travel to Pakistan to participate in the SCO conclave in mid-October.

This marks the first visit by an Indian external affairs minister to Pakistan in nearly nine years, despite ongoing tensions between the two nations over cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan is set to host the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting on October 15 and 16. The last Indian external affairs minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj, who attended an Afghanistan conference in Islamabad in December 2015.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit which will be held in Islamabad on October 15 and 16, a government spokesperson said on Friday. The visit will mark the first high-level visit from India to Pakistan in about five years.

“EAM Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan for the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on 15th and 16th October,” MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a press conference on Friday.

Pakistan had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the SCO Summit.

This will be first visit by Indian External Affairs Minister to Pakistan since 2015. Former external affairs minister late Sushma Swaraj visited Islamabad in 2015 to attend a security conference on Afghanistan.

SCO is a multilateral body that includes Russia and China as members, with Pakistan hosting this year’s summit.

Jaishankar’s Pakistan visit comes  a month after he called out the neighbouring country over cross-border terrorism at the United Nations General Assembly. “Many countries get left behind due to circumstances beyond their control, but some make conscious choices with disastrous consequences. A premier example is our neighbour, Pakistan,” the minister said on September 28.

“We heard some bizarre assertions from it at this very forum yesterday. So let me make India’s position perfectly clear. Pakistan’s cross border terrorism policy will never succeed, and it can have no expectation of impunity. On the contrary, actions will certainly have consequences.” Jaishankar said referring to Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif‘s address at the UNGA a day before.