PM Modi invited to SCO meeting in Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Office

Islamabad, Aug 29 (IANS) Pakistan on Thursday formally confirmed that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting being held in Islamabad in mid-October.

Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, at her weekly press briefing, said the country had sent invitations to the heads of countries to participate in the meeting, Pakistani media reported

"An invitation has also been sent to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi," she said, adding that some countries had already confirmed their participation in the meeting.

"It will be informed in due course which country has confirmed," Baloch added.

Pakistan is set to host the SCO heads of government meeting on October 15-16. The event will be preceded by a ministerial meeting and several rounds of senior officials’ meetings focused on financial, economic, socio-cultural, and humanitarian cooperation among the SCO member states.

Analysts see the invitation as a "protocol" as PM Modi is unlikely to accept the invitation as relations between the two neighbouring countries have been tense since August 5, 2019, when India abrogated the Constitution's Article 370, changing the status of Jammu and Kashmir.

It is expected that PM Modi may depute a ministerial delegation to represent India as the SCO meeting does not require heads of state to participate. In the past as well, SCO CHG meetings have seen India represented by ministers and the same pattern is this time as well.

PM Modi had not also attended the SCO's 24th annual summit of heads of state held in Kazakhstan on July 3-4 this year and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had represented India in Astana.

Pakistani analysts say they do not expect that PM Modi will come to Pakistan for the meeting.

"Extending invitations to PM Modi and all other member states is a compulsive protocol any host country follows. Pakistan has done the same. I do not see this as a political stunt. However, I do not see PM Modi landing in Islamabad," political analyst Kamran Yousaf said.

Last year, Pakistan's then-Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India for the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting.