India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visits Pakistan for Shanghai bloc summit

First visit by an Indian Foreign Minister to Pakistan in nearly nine years comes amid strained ties between the countries

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrives in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. AP

India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for a meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, along with leaders and senior officials from countries including China, Russia and Iran. It is the first time in nearly nine years that India has sent a foreign minister to its nuclear-armed neighbour.

The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) is an intergovernmental security and economic bloc formed in 2001 by Russia, China and former Soviet states in Central Asia to promote stability in the region and counter western influence from groups such as Nato. Iran joined the group last year.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will lead the two-day Council of Heads of Government, the second-highest forum within the SCO, in Islamabad on Wednesday and Thursday. Pakistan assumed the bloc's rotating chairmanship at the previous meeting, in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, in October last year.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Belarusian Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Tajik Prime Minister Kohir Rasulzoda, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, Kyrgyzstan’s Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Akylbek Zhaparov and Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref are also attending the summit. The leaders will discuss continuing economic, trade, environmental and social co-operation.

Pakistan has made stringent security arrangements, closing several key routes to Islamabad and the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi, as well as shutting down schools, colleges and businesses for three days amid increased deployment of troops throughout the capital.

Authorities arrested hundreds of supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party planned a protest against his jail sentence but later called it off.

Mr Jaishankar’s visit is seen as significant in the context of the hostility between India and Pakistan since the subcontinent was divided in 1947 after independence from British colonial rule. The two nations have fought three wars and have frozen diplomatic relations since 2019 when they were on the verge of another war over the Kashmir region where each controls a part of the territory but claims it in its entirety.

Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi after it revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution that gave special status to Kashmir.

Sushma Swaraj was the last Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan, for a conference on Afghanistan in Islamabad in December 2015. Pakistan’s former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India in May 2023 to attend a meeting of SCO foreign ministers in the southern state of Goa. Pakistan in August invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the latest SCO meeting.

“Like with any neighbour, India would certainly like to have good relations with Pakistan,” Mr Jaishankar said recently.

Mr Li’s visit is also being watched closely. He is the first Chinese premier to visit Pakistan in 11 years. He was received by Mr Sharif at the airport and is scheduled to hold talks with Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and other political and military figures over four days. Pakistan considers China a “close friend”, its foreign ministry says.

Beijing is building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as part of its flagship Belt and Road Initiative to promote global trade. The corridor comprises a road and rail network connecting China’s Xinjiang region to Pakistan’s coast and the development of a deep sea port at Gwadar in Balochistan province. On Tuesday Mr Li inaugurated an airport next to Gwadar Port.