Pakistan has ruled out holding bilateral talks with India on the sidelines of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which will be attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Jaishankar, who will lead a delegation to Islamabad next week, has taken a similar stance and insisted that his visit is for a multilateral event.
The visit assumes significance as it is the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian external affairs minister in nine years, with the last visit being by Sushma Swaraj in 2015.
When asked about Jaishankar’s visit, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said, “I would like you to refer to the Foreign Minister’s speech on October 5, in which he insisted that his visit was a Multilateral activities are not meant to discuss Pakistan-India relations.”