Pakistan's foreign minister to attend SCO meeting in India

According to Pakistani officials, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the country's foreign minister, will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) foreign ministers' meeting in India next month. The SCO is a political and security bloc comprising China, Russia, India, and Pakistan, among others. 

The meeting is set to take place on May 4 and May 5 in the coastal state of Goa. Pakistan's foreign office spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch, said that Bhutto-Zardari has been invited by his Indian counterpart, Dr S Jaishankar, and that Pakistan's participation in the meeting demonstrates the country's commitment to the SCO Charter and processes. 

This will be the first visit to India by a Pakistani foreign minister in nearly 12 years. The relationship between the two nations deteriorated after India's Hindu nationalist government revoked the partial autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir in 2019. Both India and Pakistan claim the region in full, and the ongoing conflict has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people since the 1980s.