ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will leave for India tomorrow to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa, ARY News reported on Wednesday quoting sources.
FM Bhutto will be the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in nearly 12 years.
According to MOFA spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will be leading the Pakistan delegation to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), which will take place in the Indian city of Goa on May 4 and 5.
Pakistan’s foreign minister will also hold meetings on the sidelines of the SCO moot during his visit of India.
“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,” Baloch said in a weekly press briefing.
She recalled that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had last year in July also attended the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Tashkent.
The foreign minister attending the moot on the invitation of current chairman of SCO CFM Dr S Jaishankar, India’s Minister for External Affairs.
Separately, Foreign Minister Bhutto also confirmed that he would be attending the upcoming SCO moot in India.
“It will be a gathering of foreign ministers and I will go there as a representative of Pakistan,” he told reporters at a press conference in Islamabad.
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