Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif to virtually attend SCO India meeting

Islamabad, June 23 (IANS) Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will virtually attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting chaired by India on July 4.

"We have received the official invitation from Indian Prime Minister for our Prime Minister for the virtual meeting of Heads of State of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that is due to take place on July 4," The News quoted a spokeswoman at the Foreign Office as saying at a briefing.

"Pakistan will be represented at the summit. We will be making an announcement regarding our participation in coming days," she added.

Earlier this month, the Centre said that it was never announced that the July 4 meeting would be held in person.

"As everyone is aware that in the past some years, several events have taken place virtually so taking all factors into account, we decided that the Summit of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held in a virtual format on the 4th of July," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said.

The statement came just days after the Ministry announced that it will host the annual SCO summit in virtual format on July 4.

In September 2022, the in-person SCO summit was held in the Uzbek city of Samarkand which saw the participation of all the top leaders of the grouping, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

India had assumed the rotating chairmanship of the SCO at the Samarkand summit.

The Ministry has said that all the SCO member states -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- have been invited to attend the virtual summit.