ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will leave for Goa today (Thursday) to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers meeting — a visit that has stirred mixed emotions in India, particularly given his cutting remarks on Indian Prime Minister Naredra Modi’s communal politics and harsh treatment of India’s minorities.

This will be the first visit to India by a foreign minister of Pakistan since July 2011, when then-foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar visited for peace talks.

“Our participation in the meeting reflects Pakistan’s commitment to the SCO charter and processes and the importance that Pakistan accords to the region in its foreign policy priorities,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s visit comes at a time when the relationship between the two nuclear-armed arch rivals has nosedived over a combination of factors.

Pakistan has already made it clear that the foreign minister during his visit will not hold any bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari has also dismissed speculations surrounding his upcoming trip, saying it should not be interpreted as a sign of improved bilateral ties between the two neighbouring countries.

He clarified that he had not requested for a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, emphasising that the visit should be seen in the context of the SCO, which is an eight-member political and security bloc that also includes Russia and China. He stressed that Pakistan cannot allow India to further isolate it.

In addition to deliberating upon important regional and international issues and signing some of the institutional documents, the Council of Foreign Ministers will finalise the agenda and decisions to be adopted by the 17th SCO Council of Heads of State Meeting, scheduled to take place in New Delhi on July 3-4, 2023.

The foreign minister is also expected to meet with his counterparts from friendly countries on the sidelines of the meeting.

India has also sent invitations to the foreign ministers of China and Russia along with other Central Asian countries. Iran is the newest member of the organisation and it will, for the first time, attend the SCO meeting as a full member.

The visit where foreign ministers of China and Russia would be participating along with other member states makes it an occasion to review the global situation, which is spiraling out of control, chiefly given the war in Ukraine. But India and Pakistan have a canny way of upstaging the global agenda.