Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reached Pakistan on Tuesday. He has reached Pakistan's capital Islamabad to participate in the much-awaited 23rd summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Pakistan had laid out the red carpet to welcome Jaishankar. Ilyas Nizami, Director General of South Asia in the Pakistan Foreign Ministry, welcomed Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar. Nizami shook hands warmly after giving the bouquet.
Apart from this, children dressed in traditional dress presented bouquets to Jaishankar and also got photos clicked with him. Before this, Prime Ministers and other ministers of many other countries reached Pakistan. According to Pakistani media reports, Jaishankar arrived last and was welcomed by Pakistani officials.
People associated with the matter said that Jaishankar may attend the dinner ceremony organized by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif will host a dinner to welcome the representatives of SCO member countries. Both sides have already ruled out the possibility of any bilateral talks between Jaishankar and Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on the sidelines of the SCO Heads of Government Summit.
This is the first visit of an Indian Foreign Minister to the neighboring country in nearly a decade amid tensions in relations between India and Pakistan. Pakistan is hosting a two-day meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) on October 15 and 16.
The last External Affairs Minister of India to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. He traveled to Islamabad in December 2015 to attend a conference on Afghanistan. Jaishankar's visit to Pakistan is considered important as it is being seen as an important decision from India's side.
