Pakistan has officially invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)-related meeting to be held in October. The SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) will meet in Islamabad on October 15-16. According to reports, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that invitations have been sent to the heads of member states to participate in the meeting. Under this, an invitation has also been sent to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Spokesperson Baloch said that some countries have already confirmed their participation in this meeting. Information on which country has accepted the invitation will be given in due course. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said last Tuesday that Pakistan will definitely send an invitation to PM Modi to attend the event. India asked not to speculate India on August 26 denied media reports that Prime Minister Modi would not attend the upcoming SCO summit in Pakistan. Regarding this, an official of the Ministry of External Affairs said, “We have seen that there are reports that PM Modi will not attend the SCO meeting in Pakistan or instead the External Affairs Minister will attend the SCO meeting in Pakistan.” we want It is clear that the Ministry of External Affairs has not yet commented on the matter, so any speculation regarding this should be avoided. Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on Thursday that diplomatic sources said Modi was unlikely to cross the border, but the Indian External Affairs Ministry's advice to avoid speculation had given new life to the rumours, rather than suppressing them. The newspaper further writes that India has not yet given any reply that PM Modi is not attending the SCO meeting. Due to this, the game of speculation has started in both India and Pakistan. PM Modi did not participate in SCO summit in July PM Modi did not participate in the SCO summit held in Kazakhstan on July 3-4 this year. In his place, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar represented India. Last year, Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek hosted the SCO's CHG meeting. In which even PM Modi could not attend. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar attended in his place. India hosted the SCO summit in virtual mode on July 4 last year. In which the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif participated online. Earlier in May 2023, Pakistan's then Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari came to India to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa. PM Modi reached PAK on a surprise visit 9 years ago Prime Minister Modi last went to Lahore on a surprise visit in 2015. After that he met Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif. After this, in December 2015, the then External Affairs Minister of India Sushma Swaraj also visited Pakistan. No Indian Prime Minister or Minister has visited Pakistan since his visit. After the removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, tensions between India and Pakistan increased. Since then no high-level meeting has taken place between the two countries. Why is SCO important for India? SCO includes India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This organization is created to maintain peace in Central Asia and cooperation among all countries. Pakistan, China and Russia are also its members. The SCO provides a strong platform for India to strongly present its views on counter-terrorism and security related issues. According to experts, there are three main policies of India regarding SCO:
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Pakistan sends invitation to Modi for SCO meet: India says on whether PM will attend or not – don't speculate
