Jaishankar-Zardari shook hands!

• May 05, 2023

Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has come to India to attend the SCO conference. Foreign ministers of 8 countries including India participated in this two-day conference in Goa. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal and India's Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar shook hands at the dinner on behalf of India, the host of the conference.

After almost a century, a foreign minister from Pakistan visited India. Earlier in 2011, the then Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar came to India and met the then Foreign Minister SM Krishna. Hina is currently the Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. In 2016, Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan's foreign ministry adviser, visited India.

This SCO conference is going on in Benolim, Goa. Chinese Foreign Minister Xin Gan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Bakhtiar Saidov, and SCO Secretary Chang Ming are present there. Also present were the foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

On this day, the Indian Foreign Minister held bilateral talks with the Foreign Ministers of China, Russia, and Uzbekistan. In the meeting with Russia, the relations between the two countries, SCO, G20, and BRICS were discussed.

India-Pakistan relations have been repeatedly strained by terrorism. India has been repeatedly attacked by Pakistan. As a result, India has made its position clear that until cross-border terrorism is stopped, healthy and fair discussions are not possible on any issue. First, Pakistan should take the initiative to stop terrorism. In this context, even if Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visits India at the SCO conference, there is almost no possibility of bilateral talks between the two countries. As a result, courtesy will stop at the SCO conference until that handshake. Experts think so for now.

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