S Jaishankar greets the foreign minister of Pakistan at SCO

S. Jaishankar, minister of external affairs, today greeted Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, his counterpart from Pakistan, at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Goa. Prior to the two posing for pictures and Mr. Jaishankar directing him to the location, visuals displayed the foreign ministers’ usual greeting of folded hands.
First top leader from the adjacent nation to visit India in nearly 12 years is Bilawal Bhutto. A bilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, though.

The SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) conference that Mr. Bhutto will be attending in India will take place as relations between the two nations remain strained over a number of issues, including Islamabad’s use of cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir.

JP Singh, the joint secretary in charge of the external affairs ministry’s section overseeing Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, met the Pakistani foreign minister when he arrived at the Goa airport earlier today.

The Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang reiterated that the situation at the India-China border is generally stable and that both sides should build on the current successes and strictly adhere to the relevant agreements while urging for further cooling and easing of the conditions for lasting peace and tranquilly at the frontier. Earlier, Mr. Jaishankar spoke with Mr. Qin Gang on the sidelines of the important meeting at Benaulim in Goa.

After the talks, Mr. Jaishankar stated in a tweet that the emphasis remained on finding a solution to any outstanding problems and maintaining calm and peace in the border regions.

At the Samarkand SCO Summit in 2022, India assumed the SCO’s rotating presidency. This year, India will play host to a number of significant SCO gatherings, including the May 4-5 Foreign Ministers’ conference in Goa.