Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal responded to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s upcoming visit to Pakistan, where he will lead the Indian delegation at the SCO Summit 2024.

In a social media post, Sibal shared “just a thought” and asked what India had gained and what Pakistan had lost.

Also Read: S Jaishankar to attend SCO summit in Pakistan on October 15-16; first foreign minister to visit the country in 9 years

“Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Invitation to Heads of Government Jaishankar to go to Islamabad First visit after 9 years Just a thought: What has India gained? What has Pakistan lost?” he questioned.

“I don’t have an answer!” he said.

MEA said on Friday that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be travelling to Pakistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit scheduled to take place in October.

On being asked about India’s participation in the upcoming SCO Summit, the MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “EAM Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on October 15-16.” 

Also Read: SCO Summit 2024: S Jaishankar delivers PM Modi’s message on terrorism, Climate change – 6 key points

In August, Pakistan invited India to the in-person meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG). During a media briefing on August 30, spokesperson Jaiswal confirmed this invitation from Islamabad.

When asked about it, he said, “Yes, we have received an invitation to the Council of Heads of State Government meeting (SCO). We don’t have any updates yet but will inform you about the situation later.”

Additionally, in May 2023, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India for the SCO meeting in Goa, marking the first visit by a Pakistani Foreign Minister to India in six years.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

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Its predecessor was the Shanghai Five mechanism. SCO countries currently include nine member states: India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

The SCO has three observer states: Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Belarus.

At the Samarkand SCO Summit in 2022, the process of raising the status of the Republic of Belarus within the Organisation to the level of a member state started. The SCO has 14 dialogue partners: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Sri Lanka. 

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.