India may invite Pakistani PM Imran Khan for SCO meet in Oct
New Delhi/IBNS: India may invite Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO) meet it is hosting in the month of Oct this year, Ministry of External Affairs has said.
"As per the established practice and procedure within SCO, all the eight members of SCO, as well as four observer states and other International dialogue partners, will be invited to attend the meeting," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters.
SCO meeting is held annually at the Prime minister's level and it discusses SCO's programme of multilateral economic and trade cooperation.
Asked if India would invite Pakistan to attend the meeting in the current situation, Kumar said that so far, India has decided to go with SCO protocol, but the final decision will be taken later, based on the evolving situation.
The bilateral relations between India and Pakistan were further strained after India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state in two union territories last Augst with the view to integrate the region with the rest of India. Pakistan, on the other hand, had been protesting India's move and has been attempting to create an anti-India narrative on the issue.
Yesterday, Pakistan, for the second time, failed to get India censured at a United Nations Security Council closed-door meeting called by China to discuss the current situation in Kashmir as the UK, US, France and Russia dismissed the discussion, saying the platform should not be used to discuss a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
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